Betta Care
Acclimatising your Betta
You get yourself a new betta and then what? Don't just tip him or her into their new home that is for sure. Take your time and slowly, very slowly acclimatise them to the new conditions. pH will be different for one let alone other water qualities such as hardness. The best thing to do is to float the bag (or container) in the new home for about 30 minutes to bring the temperatures together. Then add a little water every 10 minutes or so into the bag to adjust the water to the same pH your water is. The time taken to do this will depend on the variation in the pH so we recommend getting a pH test kit. If it is a huge variation then do it over a longer period of time. This could take an hour. It could take longer. The general rule is that the longer it takes the better. When you are finally satisfied that all care has been taken to acclimatise the betta to their new home release your new friend.
Betta House -- You can keep bettas in all sorts of containers. Vases, jars, bottles, barracks and tanks will all do the trick. What is important is the size of their new house. We recommend that whatever container you choose it hold at least 2 litres of water. More is better.
Males MUST be kept on their own. They will fight and though they may not fight to the death the damage they cause to each other will sometimes result in the same sad ending.
Females can be kept in a community tank. They will occasionally fight but they are generally less aggressive than the males and as long as the tank is large enough and has plenty of plants and other hiding spots they will live happily together. We would not recommend keeping just two in the tank though. 3 or more is better. In the community situation the females will fight to sort out a "pecking" order. Once the alpha female has been decided then they will generally get along just fine. Just keep an eye out for any damage to fins especially when they are first sorting the tank hierarchy out. You may have to apply some medication to the water if there is a lot of damaged fins, but generally if the damage isn't too serious and the water is well aged and cycled they will heal up just fine.
Betta Water -- Clean water means a healthy betta.
The Betta Splendens natural environment is far removed from what we have at our homes especially here in Oz. Bettas originate from South East Asia from the shallow waters of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. This is obviously a tropical environment and as such the water temperatures are warm. All well and good if you live at the Top End of Oz but for those in colder temperate climates allowances need to be made.
Temperature: An aquarium heater will need to be used in colder climates. You will need to buy a thermometer as well to make sure the water stays at the right temperature. A heater is only good if you have them in tanks or barracks though. If you keep bettas in jars then heaters aren't really an option so you will have to keep them in a heated room. We've heard of some people using heating mats under their jars but we have not tried it. All our males are in a heated barracks system or divided tanks with heaters and our females live in heated community tanks.
We suggest the optimum temperature for Bettas to be between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius. Anything lower than 20 degrees is not ideal. It will slow their metabolism down and disease becomes more prevalent. Likewise don't keep the water temperature too high. They can survive temporary lows and highs between but anything permanent will not be good for the betta.
pH: The first thing to do is to buy a pH test kit. Water pH, and to some extent the hardness of the water, is a major factor in keeping healthy bettas. If the water is 'hard" then the pH will be generally be high (alkaline). If the water is "soft" the pH is generally low (acid). Minerals and such will increase the pH and decaying plant matter will decrease pH.
The optimum pH is 7.0 (neutral) though they will be content in water between pH 6.5 and 7.5.
What you need to do is get the pH to the best range for your Bettas and try to maintain it. Test your local tap water and see what it comes out at. Our local tap water is very alkaline (pH 8.0 to 8.4 depending on the day) and needs to be lowered. So we use a product called "pH down" to lower the pH to about 7.4. You can purchase products to either raise or lower pH from your local fish shop.
If your tap water pH is OK then leave it alone. Also remember that any pH adjustments should be done very gradually. Too much "pH down" for example can burn your Bettas since you are effectively adding acid to the water. If the pH just won't go down then leave it at that and your betta will adapt.
If you are going to keep any betta with other tropical fish (a general community tank) then make sure that all the species have similar keeping requirements in regards to temperatures and pH. Also make sure that the other species are compatible with the betta and vica-versa. Bettas can be aggressive but likewise so can other tropical fish species.
Salt: Some breeders use salt others don't. We do. We use 1 teaspoon of salt for 10 litres of water. The idea behind it is that it reduces the chance of your bettas contracting a disease. It won't prevent it completely but it can help.
The salt used is important. Don't use any type of salt since it might have "anti-caking" agents in it. 100% rock salt is fine but it takes longer to dissolve. We use a cooking salt which is 100% sea salt and has no other additives.
Aging Water: Use a de-chlorinator or "aging solution" to get rid of the chlorines, chloramine, ammonia and heavy metals in the tap water. This will "age" your water. We "age" our tap water for a further three days before using it. We still use a de-chlorinator but we also have it sit in a large container with a filter for three days before use. Since we are also adding "pH down" this gives us a better reading when we pH test it and ensures there are no toxic chemicals in the water. Having said that, the various de-chlorinators on the market do a great job and the water can be used straight away if you want to.
Chlorine will kill your bettas. Use a de-chlorinator. If you have used bleach to clean out tanks then rinse, rinse, rinse. Rinse again. Then use a double or even better a triple does of de-chlorinator to make sure the jar is bleach free. Then sit that container in the sun for a day. Then you can use the tank / jar. Chlorine kills so make sure.
Soap products will kill your betta. Do not go near your betta (or any other fish) after using soap products. Rinse your hands and any other items that will go near fish, very well.
Adding water: Do it gradually. No point putting your fish through a washing machine. It will either stress it out or damage fins. Add any water to jars and tanks slowly. A trickle is better than a pour. Time consuming I know but the fish prefer it.
Make sure the water you are putting in is the same temperature as the water in the tank / jar. Our aged water tank has a heater in it so that the temperature is the same as any of the tanks or barracks we keep bettas in. You can just as easily add boiled water or cold water to the aged water to adjust it.
Betta Food --- In nature Bettas feed almost exclusively on insects and insect larvae. Their digestive system is geared for meat. For this reason, live foods are the ideal diet for the betta, however they will adapt to eating flake foods, pellets, frozen and freeze dried foods. Mosquito Larvae, Brine shrimp, Daphnia, Bloodworms, Blackworms and Tubifex worms are all excellent. There are also commercially made "betta pellets" which they seem to love. If you can catch some mosquito larvae for a feed they will love you forever.
Bloodworms can be bought freeze dried or frozen. This is the staple diet of our bettas especially frozen. It is convenient and will keep for a long time.
Blackworms are one of their favourites. You can get these at most local fish shops but make sure they are fresh and that there are no dead worms in any serves they try to sell. We've tried to grow and maintain our own blackworms but with little success.
Mosquito Larvae another favourite and readily available. Great for conditioning your bettas for breeding.
Brine shrimp are easily hatched at home for the baby bettas and you can even grow them to adult size for the larger bettas.
Live Daphnia can also be raised at home and are great for baby bettas.
We feed our bettas all of these foods. A variety of diet is good and they rarely get the same thing for any length of time. We also feed our bettas some pea once a week to clean them out and we give the adults a food free day once a week.
** With any live food make sure they are rinsed well with aged water before feeding especially the mosquito larvae and blackworms.