Hello everyone, this is Jason from Primetime Aquatics. In this video, we’re going to be talking about a really popular betta fish . We have been keeping them in our fish room for decades, and they are super cool. A lot of awesome color, really cool footage, can be a great fish for a beginner provided that you know what to give them, how to care for them. We’re going to cover those things in this video, so stay tuned.
So this is a betta, betta splendens. It is the most common species of betta kept in the hobby. There are dozens of other species, but this is going to be our focus today. As we’re going to see, lots of different varieties in terms of their finish, in terms of their coloration. That’s I think what makes them so popular in the hobby. They come from parts of Asia, the water there is usually flowing fairly slowly, and so we’re gonna try to mimic that in our aquariums as well.
Betta Fish Size and Coloration
So let’s take a look at the size. I think one of the things that attracts people to bettas is obviously first, there are amazing coloration and finish, but also the fact that they don’t get super big. So they’re gonna be somewhere around that three-inch mark, and females will be about the same size. And as you’re going to see throughout this video, the coloration is absolutely phenomenal, and that can happen for both the males and the females. Where the females, the coloration may be very similar, often their fins are going to be much shorter than the males that you would usually find at a pet store.
Betta Fish Temperament
And I think one of the things, especially if you’re new to keeping bettas, that we have to consider is their temperament, and it can really be all over the board. I’ve seen bettas that are really relatively laid-back, and I’ve seen bettas that can be a terror of the fish tank. And so part of that depends on the individual fish, but the other part of that really depends upon what you’re putting in the tank, how big the tank is, and so we’re gonna look at those aspects as well.
Betta Fish Lifespan
Now one of the interesting things that I’ve found over time is the lifespan. I have found for a lot of the big-box store-bought bettas, they don’t tend to live very long. I suspect that’s due to the relatively poor genetics of some of these lines. And so maybe you get a year or a year and a half out of them. I’ve also found that when you get them from a breeder, the average life expectancy tends to go up quite a bit, and so you might get two or three years out of a betta when you’re getting them from a breeder who’s paying attention to the genetics and making sure that their line is still healthy.
Betta Fish Care
When it comes to keeping them, I would highly recommend a few things. Often we see them in the store, and they’ve got them in these little cups, and people take them home, think thing, and put them in a bowl with no heater and no filter, and they’re gonna be fine. And often that doesn’t work very well. And so one of the things that I would strongly recommend, if you are in a home where the temperature is usually in the low 70s, you’re gonna want a heater for your tank, and bring that temperature up to around 78 degrees or so. They’re gonna do so much better at that higher temperature.
Often what you’ll see at a lower temperature, let’s say around 70-ish or so, 72, they tend to kind of sulk at the bottom and not do a whole lot. And that’s just telling us that our temperatures are probably a little bit too cool. So definitely get a heater for your fish tank when you get about it. You’re gonna want to filter, just to keep the nitrification going. So fish are gonna produce ammonia, and then that’s gonna be turned into nitrite, and both of those things are really toxic for your fish.
And so you want to have the beneficial bacteria with filtration. We’ve done videos on that before. I’ll put them in the description below. But you want to have those beneficial bacteria so that nitrification can happen, and that’s going to keep your water a lot better for your betta.
Betta Fish Water Parameters
Now when it comes to the water parameters, the water parameters are everywhere. Let’s face it. You know, when we look across how people are keeping bettas throughout even just the United States, for instance, our water, it’s relatively hard, and so it’s got a general hardness somewhere in that 10 to
12 to 13 degrees hardness, somewhere in the 180 to 200 parts per million, but they can be kept in that water. They can be kept in much softer water. When it comes to pH, I think if you’re right around neutral, you’re gonna be pretty safe. So you might be able to go a little bit less,
certainly be able to go a little bit less. But for us, our pH is right around at 8.2, and yet they’re thriving, and they’ve been thriving for years in our water. But usually, right around neutral, you’re gonna be fairly safe.
Betta Fish Feeding
Now when it comes to feeding bettas, it’s really not hard. They’re not all that picky, at least in my experience. They will eat flake food and small pellets, and frozen brine shrimp, and frozen bloodworms. It’s best if you’re gonna feed them frozen bloodworms to chop them up into smaller pieces. You can contact us here They also really like live baby brine shrimp. I’ve found that bettas tend not to be overly picky when it comes to their food.
Betta Fish Tank Size
I think one of the things that we need to consider, and probably one of the most controversial subjects when it comes to betta keeping, is the size of the tank. Now, we have kept bettas in tanks as low as two and a half. I personally wouldn’t go any lower than that, long-term. I know there are many people out there that feel that a two and a half gallon tank is too small for a betta, You can contact us here.
because bettas tend not to be a high-energy fish. They’re not swimming around quite as much as, let’s say, your tetras or your zebra danios or something that’s gonna really be flying around the tank. I have found a two and a half gallon minimum can do it just fine. I’ve kept them in as large a tank as a 75-gallon in a community setting and had good luck there as well.
Betta Fish Tank Mates
I would say if you’re new to fish keeping, the larger the tank that you get, the easier it’s going to be to maintain good water parameters. And so, certainly, a five and a half gallon, even a ten-gallon, would be a really good idea. Even though we’ve kept them in a smaller tank, we know how to manage those water parameters properly to make sure our fish are healthy.
The tank size is also gonna have a major impact on what types of fish you keep with your betta. We get this question all the time: “What can I keep with a betta?” Well, in a two and a half gallon, the short answer is probably nothing. We have, if it works out okay, we’ve got a betta in with a mystery snail, and that’s worked out okay in that particular setup, with that fish. That may not always work. You know, the larger tank you have, the more options you have.
Betta Fish Tank Decoration
And so, on a 2 and a half or maybe even a 5, I might just keep the betta on its own, and there’s a couple reasons for that. There are two types of aggression you may have to manage, and that is your betta chasing other fish around in a smaller setting. They’ve got nowhere to go, and so often, they’re gonna get beat down a little bit. The other issue is that if you’ve got any type of fish that may then nip your betta, they have nowhere to go, and so in those smaller tanks,
it might just be better off just keeping your betta by itself. By the time you get to a 10-gallon tank, I think now you can begin to think about other types of fish. So maybe some pygmy Cory cats, in a 10-gallon, or some small rasboras, or some small, non-fin-nipping tetras. We’ve done stocking ideas for 2 and a half, 5 and a half, 10-gallon fish tanks. I’ll put all those in the description below if you want more information. But the most important thing, when you’re looking for tank mates for your betta,
you want to make sure that they’re not super active. We’re just gonna stress your betta out. You want to make sure that they’re not going to be a fish that’s known to fin-nip. So a lot of the barbs would certainly be out. Gouramis would probably be a bad idea. Mollies might not work. Even guppies, we’ve done that before in larger tanks with some success, but you just have to be careful when you’ve got long-finned fish, and now they’re picking on one another. Cory cats, bristlenose plecos,
Now, when it comes to decorating your tank, what we like to do is we like to keep it natural, and most of the time. So we’ll have usually some sand or some gravel, that the substrate really doesn’t matter, is you know, sand, gravel, your average aquarium substrate is going to be fine. They don’t really interact with the bottom all that much. When it comes to rock work,
often it’s better to have smooth rocks, as opposed to sharper rocks, because sometimes bettas like to wedge themselves in between rocks and get scraped up a little bit. For us, we really like live plants, and so you’ll see a lot of our tanks, they are often going to be populated with live plants. That helps manage water parameters, and for us, we just like that more natural look.
But certainly, fake plants are going to be just fine. Even when it comes to wood, just make sure that you know, sometimes you get a lot of the spider wood with a lot of the really sharp ends, that may not be the best for your betta, or its fins. And so, if it’s gonna be wood, maybe sometimes the Malaysian driftwood, some of those smoother woods, might be a better option.
Betta Fish Filtration
Filtration is super important in a betta tank. I started to mention this earlier, but you do want some type of filter in a fish tank, and that’s gonna help again with keeping the water parameters correct. A lot correct, allowing us to go from ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate, and then we do our water changes to manage that. You can see in our tanks, we’ve got some sponge filters.
The other thing that you can do is a low-flow hang-on. The big thing here is, we don’t want a lot of heavy flow in our fish tank when we have bettas, especially with long fins, because they’re gonna be fighting that current, and tiring themselves out. And often what you see is your betta hiding, either at the bottom, or stuck in some kind of a decoration,
just trying to get out of that heavy flow. So we really want to reduce the flow in our fish tanks when it comes to bettas, because they would appreciate that far more than having a lot of water movement.
Keeping Multiple Bettas Together
Now, when it comes to keeping bettas together, males cannot be kept together. They will usually kill each other. Even when they are kept together next to one another in separate tanks, often we will put paper, or some type of card, between the tank,
so that they don’t wear themselves out constantly flaring at one another. The other popular idea is to have multiple females together, a betta sorority. Then, for us, has not tended to work out well, long-term. We tried that, even in the 75-gallon tank, and long-term, it didn’t work. The bettas, the female bettas, just kept fighting,
to the point where we just had a couple left. And it’s something to consider, you know, in a small tank. I think it’s definitely not going to work if you just got a few. The dominant female betta will often kill the other ones. In a larger tank, I’ve seen people make it work,
but I would caution you against that, especially if you are new to keeping fish, or new to keeping bettas. It’s best just to have one betta in a tank, and not mix them with other bettas, especially if you’re new.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for more information, especially on how to breed them, I will put a link to Create a Pet Keeping’s channel in the description below. She would be able to provide you with some really good information there. So I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope this gives you some perspective on how to keep them successfully. If you did enjoy the video, share, subscribe, and we’ll see you in the next one.
