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Learning about Bettas

2K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  Kegan Clark 
#1 ·
I've always thought bettas were very beautiful and wanted one, but the ones in the pet stores/LFS put me off because I know they just die in those cups if they aren't sold, and I didn't wanna feed into the betta-torture industry by buying them.

I've been in this hobby for less than a year, but it hit me like a fever--I have 3 40 gallon tanks, a 29, a 20, a 10, and a 12. None of the tanks had any betta... until last week.

I broke down and bought a betta on ebay, supposedly a 'show quality' betta that had been raised by a good breeder (his feedback was 99% pos). Anyway, when the betta arrived, it was in rough shape--missing scales, traumatized from the shipping experience, and frankly, it looked to me exactly like the store bettas.

Does anyone know where I can get truly show quality bettas? My budget is up to $100.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, I'll contact the seller. The other thing that's happening though is that he's laying on the bottom of the tank a lot. He mostly hides and then swims to another hiding place for awhile, but sometimes he'll come out and swim to a corner and lay on the bottom.

The params are:

12 gallon--heavily planted with different varieties of moss, some petite anubias tied to rocks.

ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 5
temp consistently heated to 79F
tank cycled prior to fish being added.

Indian almond leaves at 3X large.

He shares the tank with 14 orange neo shrimp that clean up and a few snails.

why is this betta laying on the bottom? Is this a swim bladder issue? I don't know how to tell if he's breathing heavily. =(
 
#6 ·
Thank you, that's super nice of you! I love the halfmoon, butterfly and rosetails. I like big fluffy fins, and I like the colors:

white
purple
reds
pinks
oranges
silver


And mixes--I really like unique looking fish, like fish that have interesting tie-dye patterns, but I'm picky about that coloration not looking "messy".

I think I'm most interested in rosetails and butterfly

Bump:
He's just in bad shape. Give him time to recover.
Did you do overnight shipping or 2 day shipping?
It was 2 day shipping (there wasn't an option to change it).

I got him on Saturday. So it's been 2 days his tank is in a quiet place with subdued natural light during the day (been leaving the tank lights off) He still acting funny =(


Oh and I just remembered, I dose excel in his tank at 1ML daily (could that hurt him?)
 
#10 ·
Unless you have familiarized yourself with the IBC (international betta congress) standards for bettas (for show) you can't willy-nilly get a 'show quality' betta, plenty of sellers will bull [censor] it. Even if you get offspring from IBC show winners the young adult(s) you buy may still not be good show quality.
I don't know what variety of fins and color variations your petstore gets, mine gets quite a large variety.
If you want to spend the $ you can look at betta breeders stock for sale on aquabid.com from over seas (mostly Thailand and Indonesia), but even they sell some not so great quality fish. You have to deal with a transhipper to get fish to you from overseas. Its best to contact a transshipper and get their rates (you pay them for getting and shipping the fish to you when it comes into the country) before you pay for a betta (verify the seller ships to that transshipper). Not knowing what country or state if US you live in i can't suggest a transhipper.

For "big fluffy fins look at HalfMoons. I'm a fan of plakats myself-shorter fins mean less chance of getting damaged/fin biting.

Bettas tend to get stressed during shipping, some will bite their fins from the stress, most are very pale by the time you get them but 24-48 hours in warm clean water and they're colored right back up.

Define "acting funny"? Can you show a photo of the tank? If its not densely planted with plenty of hiding places the fish may feel overwhelmed by all the open space after being use to smaller containers. You can look up videos of gasping fish to get an idea of how rapidly they intake water to be considered a gasp rather than just regular breathing.
Another thing to note is current: bettas don't tolerate much of any flow, if you have a current caused by HOB/internal filter/canister filter they betta may be staying at bottom because it gets blown around if it goes anywhere else.
 
#11 ·
Define "acting funny"? Can you show a photo of the tank? If its not densely planted with plenty of hiding places the fish may feel overwhelmed by all the open space after being use to smaller containers. You can look up videos of gasping fish to get an idea of how rapidly they intake water to be considered a gasp rather than just regular breathing.
Another thing to note is current: bettas don't tolerate much of any flow, if you have a current caused by HOB/internal filter/canister filter they betta may be staying at bottom because it gets blown around if it goes anywhere else.




The square things are plastic mesh with java moss growing out--it's new so they are still bare.

How do I tell if it's too much flow? The whole back of the tank is basically a filter, with water pump at the bottom left end of the tank, and a grate at the top and bottom right where the water is sucked through biomedia along the back.
 
#12 ·
Beautiful Betta! You may want to add a dose of stress coat to his water. It is like fishy Valium with the added benefit of aloe to heal his scrapes. Also, try to slowly get him used to you. Come up to his tank slowly and talk to him. It will help him bond with you. I know it sounds crazy, but your fish will bond with you just like a dog or cat will. Once he feels safe with you, he will rush to the front of the tank to greet you. This poor guy has been through a lot. I think the Bettas at the store get drugged for shipping. Your little guy, who knows? Depending on how bad the trip was, it may take him a few days to adjust. Also, most Bettas have never had as much room to swim as yours has now. Sometimes it freaks them out. Just a suggestion: more plants. My guys love a heavily planted tank. Anubias is good stuff. They can squeeze under the roots or sit on leaves. They love it. Also, if the flow from the filter is strong, more plants will help break up the current.
 
#14 ·
more betta questions

Another question--I saw a care guide video online that said you should basically add aquarium salt (1 rounded tbs per 5 US gal) to the betta's water when you do changes. But when I got ready to do this the first time, I checked the TDS of the water before I added the salt (which was 220 because it was RO water i'd adjusted to that TDS) and then after--998 TDS. I was pretty concerned so I didn't add this water to the tank, instead just made another batch of 220 TDS water and did the water change with that.

Question--won't 1k TDS water kill betta? Was this person's guide wrong? How much aquarium salt should I put, if any, in fresh WC water?
 
#15 ·
Another question--I saw a care guide video online that said you should basically add aquarium salt (1 rounded tbs per 5 US gal) to the betta's water when you do changes. But when I got ready to do this the first time, I checked the TDS of the water before I added the salt (which was 220 because it was RO water i'd adjusted to that TDS) and then after--998 TDS. I was pretty concerned so I didn't add this water to the tank, instead just made another batch of 220 TDS water and did the water change with that.

Question--won't 1k TDS water kill betta? Was this person's guide wrong? How much aquarium salt should I put, if any, in fresh WC water?
Oh man. I'd do a water change to remove the salt. Your intention was good but might have bad results. You don't want to stress it further by adding that much salt/ tds at once. Salt is usually good for some sort of disease, not stress reliever.


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#16 · (Edited)
I don't think your new Betta is ill. He's just recovering from shipping shock. The poor guy has been terrorized for 48+ hours of shipping. I use salt to help ailing Bettas recover from Ich and fungus, but never for stress. He'll appreciate water that's 80 degrees F and I think you mentioned he's got a new Indian Almond leaf in his tank? Those leaves are perfect things for Bettas. The chemicals that come from the decaying leaf actually do seem to work like Valium for a new Betta in a foreign tank. The addition of Stress Coat to his water is also an excellent idea. Each time you feed him try to get his attention by showing him the food canister. He'll eventually associate the sight of the food canister with "food!" and this will help him get used to you and his new surroundings -- which may take several weeks. As for lying on his side . . . they do that. They do that a lot. It looks like there are enough things in your tank that should distract him. For example, most of my Bettas have a favorite plant they'll lounge in/under/around as their favorite piece of furniture. They like having furniture (a leaf or floating plant). One thing all of my Bettas hate is finger tapping on their tanks. Upsets and scares them. Once accustomed to his new tank he'll spend a lot of time lounging. Don't worry too much. He's a very beautiful guy. Good luck.
 
#20 ·
Betta has velvet

It turned out he has velvet--I could tell because he started to scratch and scrape against things--darting towards objects and flicking himself off them. This, in conjunction with the scale damage on his head, his labored breathing, and his bottom laying made my friend from my LFS think he has velvet.

I removed him from the tank and put him in my QT 5-gal bucket--it has an airstone, a heater and some floating plants for comfort. I added some AQ salt to his water just to help him breathe because my LFS guy said it would help with his osmotic pressure or something. I don't know too much about fish respiration so I can't elaborate on what he said. I also added the recommended dose per gallon of mardel coppersafe. This was 2 days ago.

The TDS of the QT water is 1250 (because I added the AQ salt it was 270 before)
PH 6.5 in QT tank
temp 81


My question is--how long do I keep him in QT? When I do a water change, do I add coppersafe to the new water that I'm adding back into the QT tank?
 
#22 ·
I can't tell if it's his natural shimmer or velvet- my LFS guy said when velvet gets really bad it no longer looks like a gold shimmer, it's more like a rusty brown that spreads over the fish--this is where velvet has damaged the scales.

Should I do a small wc on the hospital bucket (like 20%) with his regular 270 TDS water to bring the salt content down? should I add coppersafe to the WC water to maintain a theraputic level of copper?
 
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