Bettas

[bettasngoldfish]

Just wanted to share a few of my betta crew

This is my new King Betta. I didn't even know they came in this color. Most of the ones I have seen are a dark blue or green or red. I had to have him The last picture was him checkin out his new house. I thought it was funny how his head was up in the top. I watched him swim in through the bottom opening and straight up. He was checking out everything in his new home.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

 

[bettasngoldfish]

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I just love the blue "eye shadow" and blue lips on the betta in the first picture above.

So these are just some of my crew. I will post the rest another day

 

[Priscilla]

They are so gorgeous. What do you keep them in? Are they all separate? I read some place if the tank is big enough you can have more than one (of course you can't believe everything you read).

I can't believe of the three I bought I only have one left, which I put in my son's tank. He's very happy there. The two I put in the outside ponds disappeared.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thank you Priscilla

I have them in a few different type of set ups. One lives in a fifteen gallon community tank (feeder guppies, bn pleco, snails) I have two that are in five gallon (filtered and cycled) tanks. The king has his own tank that he shares with a lot of ramshorn snails. And I have another who shares his five gallon with an african dwarf frog and lot's of snails. The rest are in unfiltered/100% water change tanks all approximately two to two and a half gallons.

I have never tried to keep them in the same tank. Although I have read that people with LARGE HEAVILY PLANTED tanks have successfully kept a couple bettas in the same tank. The few times I attempted to keep a betta in a larger tank (fifty five gallon) they never fared well and always ended up dying much sooner than my other guys/gals. I'm not sure if it was the larger tank or the filteration was too much for them. I'm guessing it's was the later.

Sorry about your outside bettas. Are you sure they are not hiding somewhere? What kind of set up does your son have?

 

[Priscilla]

Sounds like lots of water changes going on at your house! LOL! I just finished cleaning my boys tanks.

Both my boys have 10 gall tanks with the usual filter set up's that you buy them with. Nothing too fancy. Both tanks are planted really well (one maybe too much - very hard to clean), but it really cuts down the amount of times I have to cleaning them. The betta is living with fancy guppies (even though I read this might cause him to nip at the tails, but he hasn't) and some platys. Everyone is getting on fine and there is no fighting.

I took all the hyacinths out of the small 35 gall pond to look for the betta, but I didn't see him. Very strange that they both went missing so quickly. I was thinking about taking all the plants out of the 110 gall pond to see if I could find that betta but haven't gotten around to it yet. I was so bummed about them going missing as I had envisioned they would be so happy with all the roots from the hyacinths to hide in and so much space compared to the cup they used to live in.

I can't even tell my husband about those - he will die if finds out how much $$ I have been spending of fish recently.

I'm going to pick up another betta today for my older son's tank, that has a mix of tetras and guppies in it.

I do have to admit, I was loving the cichlid's the other day when I was in the store. They look like salt water fish. I had always assumed they were until I started talking to the guy there. I MIGHT switch one of the boys tanks to a cichlid's set up when I am back from vacation. Put the existing fish in one of the ponds. I guess that is the perk of living in the tropics, tropical fish can live outside without a worry in the world. Love it!

I find the fish tanks and ponds so relaxing.

I am a bit worried about this vacation. I don't really know what to do about the inside tanks. I was thinking about buying those feeder packs that you drop in the tank and fish eat from that ..... ? Have you ever used those? I can't trust my dad to do the 10 gall tanks, he will dump half a bottle of food in each.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Yes, Lot's of water changes. My husband always says didn't you just do that?! And I'm like, yes dear And I hear you on the husband and spending money on fish or fish stuff. I have the same thing here

Lot's of live plants in a fish tank are a good thing. Provides places to hide, places to eat, and helps keep water quality good. Bettas don't usually fight with other fish (at least in my experience) however I do keep one in my feeder guppy tank kinda as a form of population control. They will eat smaller fish and shrimp (learned that they hard way) lol

I have had bettas with lot's of other types of fish and usually if there is a problem it's the betta that is getting hurt not the other fish. If your bettas have long flowing fins you need to be careful with the intake of your filter (if your using hang on the back type filters) I usually cover the intake with a sponge.

Cichlids are cool looking fish and pretty hardy too. You just have to be careful what type you get and how you house them. My very first cichlids were the pseudotropheus aka bumble bee cichlid. They get big and as they mature they are aggressive (to each other) I had to rehome some because they were fighting (as in lip locking) My next cichlid tank had frontosa, daffodil brichardi and electric yellow labs. The fronts were my favorite but they get big, especially the males. My brichardi had tons of babies and were only aggressive during mating time. The electric yellow labs were fairly docile and beautiful color.

The only reason I got rid of the cichlids is that I had too many tanks and need to downsize. I couldn't get rid of my goldfish or the bettas so the cichlids went. Some day I would like to have them again.

Well enough of my rambling.....Happy betta shopping! Can't wait to see what you get

Oh and as for feeding while your away. How long are you going to be gone? If it's only going to be a week I would just leave well enough alone and don't feed them. If it's longer than that I would try and premeasure food and mark it with a date that you would like it to be fed. Maybe you can use something like a pill organizer. It will give you several small compartments to hold each feeding.

I have not used the white feeder blocks but I do use the gel feeders in a foil tin. I have not used it as a vacation feeder but as a way to make sure that my apple snails get their fair share of food.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

 

[Nepen]

Cool! Love all the colors and I do like the white color!

What type of plant did you put in the tank? my plants doesn't seem to be doing so well at all. They dont grow even though it's just easy grow plant. I dont know what I did wrong may be it's not a water plant?

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thanks Nepen

I have several different types of plants that I use for my betta tanks. The small tanks that are 100% water change and without a light I use java moss (aquatic plant) or pothos cuttings (from live house plant) after a while when they start to look bad I just toss them. I also use silk plants in my betta tanks.

The regular filtered tanks with lights have several different types of plants in them but I'm not sure what type your asking about.