I’m a college student living in the dorms, and for Christmas my parents gave me a betta and a little tank. We kept him in the pet store cup for a week or so at home (from Christmas until Jan. 2, the day I drove back to school), and for the drive down, just put him and his cup in the car cupholder.
After unpacking everything, I set him up in the tank (round, about 7-8 in. diameter) and fed him the pellets that came with the tank. He tried to eat them, but they sort of fell out of his mouth. The same thing happened with the flakes we bought from the pet store. He shows interest in the food, but it’s as if he can’t keep them in his mouth long enough to digest/swallow them.
I’ve been turning a heat lamp on his tank at night, because the little booklet that came with the tank (yeah, my research here has been outstanding ;)) says that bettas are tropical and should be kept in relatively warm water. The effectiveness of said heat lamp varies; sometimes the water feels warm, sometimes room temperature or a little below.
There’s an enclave of bubbles on one side of the tank (the side away from the heat lamp).
Other than being unable to eat, the fish seems otherwise fine, swims around, sometimes hovers around the bottom of the tank with all of the sunken food.
That’s all the details I can think of – I erred on the side of overinformation for fear of leaving out an important detail. Any betta experts who can tell me what’s up? Or is my Christmas fish just defective?
You have too much food in the tank. There should never be food on the bottom of the tank to rot.
If your room is heated, you don’t need the light on him. The temperature fluctuation is bad for fish. It’s better to have it be warmer than cooler, but more preferrable to have him at the same temp all the time.
Keep him out of sunlight for the same reason, heat fluctuations.
The bubbles are a good sign, as he has made you a bubble nest in hopes of attracting a mate.
At this point, you probably need to clean the tank to help the water quality.
Remove the betta and about half his water to a new, clean, dry container. Then run water into the tank to flush out the old food. Fill the tank half way, then add chlorine remover at the recommended amount. Then add back the saved water and the fish.
Wait a few days for more information. You may just be over feeding him.
One more thing, what kind of food are you feeding him? Most betta foods are pellets, not flakes. He really only needs a few tiny pellets a few times a week.
Don’t stress about him not eating; new bettas often don’t eat for days. My Phil wouldn’t eat for a week after I brought him home. However, get that old food out of the tank NOW (I’d change out all his water) and try him on pellets. I’d give him a couple pellets once or twice a day. My Phil gets two morning and evening when I’m home, which I am sometimes not. He does fine. I recommend the Hikari ones; even the tiny package contains PLENTY of food for a long time for a single betta.
If the room temp where he lives is below about 75F on a regular basis, I would SERIOUSLY consider upgrading him to a 2 1/2 gallon tank with a heater. It’s not safe to heat a smaller tank, and the Hagen heaters are excellent. They can be a little pricey, though, $15 or $20 is the range I’ve seen them in. I’ve got a 25 W, and it keeps things at a nice steady 78F. Bettas can survive in cooler water, but they are far happier and healthier in warmer.
The bubbles are a good sign, they mean he’s feeling like finding a girlfriend.
In an interesting aside, my wife has a small tank with two bettas. The tank has an opaque divider down the middle and a very small airspace between the light and the divider. Anyway, this morning when she went to feed them, she found both fish on the same side of the tank, not fighting or anything, just hanging out.
I am not an expert, but I have two bettas right now and had one before that. I agree with what everyone else has said.
Not to hijack, but there is one other thing I would add - all the bettas I have had love to hide. I found out by accident with the first one. I had bought a rock for decoration, but it wasn’t flat on any side, so there was always a hidey space under it. My betta found that space and spent a ton of time in it. So now I give all my bettas a place to hide, and they really seem to be happier that way. It makes me sad to see a betta laying on the bottom of a tiny cup with no place to get a little privacy.
I just love the way they stalk the pellets, like they think they’re so tough! All mine came to recognize the food dispenser, and would do little happy swishy dances for attention and food. They’re about as much fun as you can have in a low maintenance pet.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out how they managed that. But I think you’re right, they looked pretty cuddly.
I had some of those little betta pellets, a sample came with the tank I purchased, and I also had some flakes left over from the last betta I had (RIP Fishy ) and some bloodworms. My bettas prefer the bloodworms over the flakes, and wouldn’t eat the pellets. I tossed them. Now I feed them a mix of the bloodworms/flakes. I feed them once a day, about 3 or 4 bloodworms and 5 or 6 flakes each. They get so excited when they see me come home from work, they know it’s dinnertime.
It’s normal for your betta to make a bubble nest, if you don’t have a plant in the tank, get one, they do like to hide. (Look for a soft one, maybe silk, so he doesn’t get his fins snagged.)
I just adore bettas, they’ve got such personality, and are beautiful to watch.
I’m glad to hear that the bubbles are a good sign. Yesterday I changed all his water and took away the heat lamp, and today he ate the two pellets I dropped in his tank. Hooray!
The dorms are heated in the winter, and although I don’t have a thermometer, it doesn’t feel like it’s less than 75 degrees, and I don’t have the money for a new tank anyway.
One more question: To fill his tank, I’ve been using “spring water” which I bought in a two-gallon tub from Costco. The parents forgot to buy dechlorinator, and there isn’t a pet store anywhere close to campus. It’s been working fine for the girls across the hall who’ve had a goldfish for a few months. I’m not slowly poisoning my betta, am I? (I mean, he’s already a little poisson, but…)
On the good side, Betas are a *seriously * tough fish. Many children in Thailand catch them, usually in horrible, muddy water, and keep them at home. My daughter has one that lives in a large glass vase with some vines growing out the top. One small boy I know keeps a dozen or so on a shelf above his bed, each in its own bottle, with cardboard dividers between bottles.
A problem we had when we first got ours was that he had “ick.,” a fish disease that makes small white dots over his body and also makes his back fin fall apart.
We had no idea what was the matter and just about despaired of the poor beast when a neighbor identified the malady. We treated him with a malachite solution and he is fine now.
They are cool and tough fish and I love watching my daughter’s swirl around the plant roots.
That works if your tap water supplier uses chlorine. Chlorine will evaporate off the surface of the water over time.
Many municipalities have switched to chloramines, which are lots more stable and will not disappear with time. Real de-chlorinator has become important, especially since many places will suddenly increase the chlorine level in response to threats to the system (water main breaks, resevoir gets fall leaves, reports of stomach ‘flu’).
I’d rather use bottled water than aged tap water, but you’re right, tap water is usually better than bottled, if chlorine free.
To answer my own question, yes you can buy females, but you can’t keep them in the same space as the males, either (I didn’t want to breed, just give my pal some companionship). Several sites suggest ghost shrimp share the bowl/tank, if anything.
I didn’t know anything about breeding them - but the males are the ones who tend the young. Even though I have no intention of doing so, I enjoyed reading about it here, so I thought others might like to know the parenting skills of their fish as well, so I am sharing.
I second the bloodworm suggestion. I’ve tried flakes, pellets and worms. The worms are the cleanest, as they don’t sink, and are very easy for the fish to catch and swallow.
Aren’t bettas great, though? I’ve probably had about 7 or so over the past 10 years and all of them had loads of personality.
) and some bloodworms. My bettas prefer the bloodworms over the flakes, and wouldn’t eat the pellets. I tossed them. Now I feed them a mix of the bloodworms/flakes. I feed them once a day, about 3 or 4 bloodworms and 5 or 6 flakes each. They get so excited when they see me come home from work, they know it’s dinnertime.