Betta fish questions

[black_cat]

Keep in mind that if you drastically change the pH, hardness/softness, etc of the water, you will have to be careful while doing water changes, since the new water would have different parameters than the water already in the tank.

Yep-for water changes I would practice exactly how much of each thing I need to get it to the right parameters while I had no fish.

 

[yakitori]

Sounds good. I may try to find a light of amazon instead of using pet store-the LEDs are all very low wattage for mine.

I saw something that was talking about watts per gallon to count as high light, medium light, and low light?

Watts per gallon isn’t that accurate, there’s too many variations with how far up the lighting is etc...

I went with a high light set up, but I cheated with floaters (plants that float on the surface) covering the top, so essentially my plants underneath got medium light. My tank was *very* heavily planted though, at one point I counted about 30 different plants in one tank, mind you this was a 3 gallon! You will need to find your balance, fast growing plants are great for processing more waste, and could do with more lighting, slow growers like anubius or crypts, will do better in lower lighting (unless supplemented with CO2) otherwise they may get out competed by light loving, fast growing algae. Ideally you want a good mix of both, I loved the slower growing plants because they were less maintenance.

 

[SegiDream]

@black_cat check out this site. It's an aquarium forum that is just super helpful. On there, I'm AcornTheBetta. https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/

I second this. I'm on there too though I haven't posted in a couple years.

That is also a place where you could potentially find breeders and buy from them. If the rules haven't changed you have to have a post count of at least 50 to post in the buy sell trade section. There are a lot of good reviews about the WetSpotTropicalFish website, they have a variety of fish to choose from. Bettas are listed under Anabantoids and some of them ARE actually wild with very real soft water needs. Other resources are FB groups, craigslist, ebay and fish swaps.

If you buy fish online you need to check the outside temperatures and make sure it is a safe time to ship. Sometimes they'll ship with hot/cool packs, possibly for an added expense. You also need to be at home when they're delivered. Many online businesses have policies that you have a short amount of time to tell them if your fish arrived dead. Like within an hour of delivery and a picture of the fish still in the sealed bag to prove it. I did get scammed by an ebay seller once who put a cheap endler guppy in the bag instead of a sparkling gourami, the seller was not helpful and I had to come up with a quick solution to put him in a separate tank so just a reminder to check the buyer feedback on ebay.

 

[black_cat]

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It really does seem like almost all of the bettas from breeders are either halfmoon or plakat. I"m really looking for something in between. I"ll keep looking.

 

[black_cat]

If you buy fish online you need to check the outside temperatures and make sure it is a safe time to ship. Sometimes they'll ship with hot/cool packs, possibly for an added expense. You also need to be at home when they're delivered. Many online businesses have policies that you have a short amount of time to tell them if your fish arrived dead. Like within an hour of delivery and a picture of the fish still in the sealed bag to prove it. I did get scammed by an ebay seller once who put a cheap endler guppy in the bag instead of a sparkling gourami, the seller was not helpful and I had to come up with a quick solution to put him in a separate tank so just a reminder to check the buyer feedback on ebay.

 

[yakitori]

You can get fish shipped? Wouldn't that be very stressful for the fish?

Funny, that was my same reaction when I heard chicks were shipped
You’d be amazed at how hardy bettas are. I had friends who bought fish from thailand. Buying from overseas meant the seller first sent the fish to a transhipper in ththe U.S.A who will then ship the fish to the buyer - imagine that!

 

[yakitori]

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It really does seem like almost all of the bettas from breeders are either halfmoon or plakat. I"m really looking for something in between. I"ll keep looking.

what’s wrong with a halfmoon plakat? Half moon doesn’t have anything to do with tail length, it’s just the shape of the tail when the fish is flaring. Breeders tend to ship fish young, which means their tails haven’t fully grown out yet. so if you want one with a shorter tail... go shorter than you intend.

 

[black_cat]

what’s wrong with a halfmoon plakat? Half moon doesn’t have anything to do with tail length, it’s just the shape of the tail when the fish is flaring. Breeders tend to ship fish young, which means their tails haven’t fully grown out yet. so if you want one with a shorter tail... go shorter than you intend.

There aren't any halfmoon plakats that I'm seeing- just plakats. I was advised by @HappyClucker7 to avoid halfmoons and deltas as they are prone to fin biting and fin rot. I really would like a halfmoon, believe me!

 

[yakitori]

There aren't any halfmoon plakats that I'm seeing- just plakats. I was advised by @HappyClucker7 to avoid halfmoons and deltas as they are prone to fin biting and fin rot. I really would like a halfmoon, believe me!

oh, yeah, it’s good advice to avoid long tail bettas in general, especially if you have a filter running. they will bite their tails off just to “lighten the load” (I would too if i had a huge tail dragging me down!).

It’s quite upsetting in the long run to see your fish mutilate his own beautiful tail...

But in terms of terminology, halfmoon or delta is really just an angle at which the tail expands to when flared, a half moon is like a D, while a delta tails is more like <)
you can even get over half moons...

There’s also double tails, spade tails and crown tails... all of which describe the shape of the tail, but not length.

The bettas most commonly seen are veiltails.

Instead of my shoddy explanation here you can look at images here, which will make tail types clearer
https://pin.it/5NhyO7p

All this talk of bettas... I think I’m going to set up a tank again soon

 

[Chickstarrs]

I would be getting the tank before the fish (as I've mentioned) to do these things:
-make sure the plants get nice and set and growing and don't die
-make sure I know how to get the water to the right pH, kH, and gH for bettas
-make sure that the tank is cycling properly

Setting up the tank and letting it cycle before the fish is a good idea. However, without the fish, you will need some sort of cycle starter. You can get some from the fish store. Some people get substrate from a friend who has an established fish tank (the bacteria is present in the substrate and will populate the tank). What you are trying to do is get a proper amount of good bacteria in the tank to help break down the ammonia from fish poop. You can cycle with a fish but you would need to do numerous water changes for the first few weeks while the bacteria establishes itself. With just one fish, you don't need so many changes.

Do you have a water test kit? It will be more important to worry about ammonia, nitrates and nitrites than pH, kH and gH. Trying to alter these last three is very tricky and usually causes more harm than good. Your water is what your water is, if that makes sense. It is best to get fish that like the kind of water you have. I am on a well and the hardness of my water is way off the charts. I drive to town and get town water for my water changes. Even the town water is hard, so when choosing the species of fish, I went for ones that like hard water. However, I do have some that like neutral water and do just fine. The key is consistency. Trying to alter the pH and hardness of your water with every water change would be a nightmare for you and the fish.

I wish you luck. Fish are great. I just love sitting in my cozy recliner watching my fish. At one point I had 4 tanks. Now I just have the 75gallon. I needed time to spend with my chickens!