These are all the list I will talk about going down each number thoroughly for people who needs help with bettas. I been learning/raising/breeding bettas since the age of 5. Betta is the first fish I have ever got that had led me into the world of the fish keeping hobby. Hopefully I will cover everything a betta keeper needs and wants to know about. Not just a betta keeper, but also others who are interested in reading some interesting betta keeping skills/secrets. Enjoy!
1. What is a betta?
2. Where did they first originated?
3. Different types of domesticated splendid?
4 How to identify between a male/female plakat?
5. Betta proper tank/home?
6. Betta food?
7. Proper feeding?
8. Betta maturing for breeding/full color spectrum?
9. Domesticated and wild differences?
10. How to breed betta properly?
11. Injured/sick betta...what to do?
12. Betta's fry care?
13. Half giant vs true giant?
14. And my favorite of all times...fighters!!!
1 - So what are betta exactly? Betta is a small fish, most common ones are no bigger than 2½" long from mouth to tail(although I've seen 3"). They are a fish that is super aggressive against their own kind. Betta is a solitary fish by nature, much like many of the aggressive cichlids out there. A labyrinth fish, which means they don't need any oxygen in their water and breathe from the same atmosphere as we do. Also one of the world wide most popular fish, due to their easy care level and a good start for someone who is fairly new at fish keeping.
2 - Almost every single betta you see out there originated from the entire South East Asia countries. Such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar(aka Burma), and Indonesia. These betta became popular for their fighting ability and nature. As a young kid in South East Asia, they would go into large calm ponds or rice paddies after a flood and catch these betta. They were used for entertainments such as many of the other bloodsports that were being used as entertainments in different countries.
3 - Different types of domesticated splendid? They are all the same fish, just different tail looks(aka fancies). The first and most common you'll probably see them around is a short/round tail, or as others call it...plakat. And yes, it is as what it sounds like. They have the shortest tail or round circular tail. Next is the halfmoon, they have a tail the shape of a halfmoon. These are the most sought after as they produce the most vibrant colors out of all other fancies. Veil tail, the first fancy that was ever invented. These are just a plakat with long fins, much similar to a veil tail oscar. Next is the crowntail, and as it sounds, these fish have a tail much like a crown. They have a long spike like tails. A combtail, which is also known as a half sun tail. The look of their tail are similar to a brush. Creating this breed is mainly from a halfmoon x crowntail. Sometimes you get different results(looks), but often you should receive a combtail. Delta, delta is very similar to a halfmoon. But their tail span doesn't form a shape of a halfmoon. It's more of a 160 degrees shape. But with a tail of being very long like the veiltail. Super delta, many inexperience betta keepers gets the super delta and the delta confuses. They look very alike. But they are just plainly an enhanced version of the delta. Just a shy of being a full halfmoon betta. But another thing you can take notice that it's a super delta is that these guys also have longer tail than the delta. Doubletail, this bred of fancy should be fairly easy to identify. Just look for a veil tail that is split in half(naturally, not ripped apart in half). Rosetail, these bettas have the largest tail out of all bettas out there. Probably all fish species! Rosetail is much similar to a halfmoon. But has a tail span over 180 degrees, which is what a halfmoon is suppose to have.
4 - They both look the same? How can you tell? Well, the answer is simple. In an untrained eye, a male and a female plakat(short/round tail) look just like the same. The cruelest way(not encouraging anyone to do this, but its a technique i figured out) and easiest way to tell the difference between a male and a female. Leave them both(male and female) in nice warm water, scoop them out and drop them in cold water. They both should turn as pale as they possibly can. To reassure that they have turned as pale as they can, dip them back into the warm water that you took them out of earlier from. The female will have the darkest and most noticeable stress line. The stress line are 2 gray/black lines running alone the side of the body. Also, females have a more blunt shape of a head, and their ventral or also known as pelvic fin are much smaller than a male. Now this is where it gets more complicated. Some males will have a very short pelvic fin(this is really rare in my own experience), just like the females. Now how do you identify them? If you are in rush of finding out which is male and which is female? Flare them, most females do not have the potential to give a full flare as male does. Their flare gills are much shorter than a male. Another way you can identify them is putting them along side together for 24 hours(longer if needed for full confirm of identification). No male except very few will be scared and try to run away from one another. On average base, most betta that try to run away are usually females. If not, they will start to develop a vertical bars along the side of its body. This tells you which is female. Now some people say how do you know still? Males develop vertical bars also? The answer is simple. The ones with darker vertical bars is usually a female, if your unsure. Just wait and see which betta will have a bigger stomach.
5 - Can betta really live in such a small home? In other words, fishbowl aka betta bowl? Yes, most betta can thrive in such a small home. But this doesn't mean that there is no limit to their home sizes, there is a limit for a fact. Bettas may be able to survive in such small home. But like many other fish, a small home can mean stunting their growth potential. The minimum I would recommend for a betta is a ½ gallon jar/tank. This does means they don't have a bigger size limit tank? From my own experience, a lot of them do. As you should know, betta doesn't require that much space. Therefore, such large tanks aren't really necessary if you wish to keep more than a few. I would say that a 10 gal should be your absolute maximum home size for your betta. Such large tanks as 30 gal and more can be stressful to most betta. They aren't heavy energy users and like to get their air fast(keep in mind, they are labyrinth fish, so large tanks may not be suitable).
Now let's go on from here. As what I see from most inexperienced store that sells betta, they use methylene blue to keep betta in betta cups. And from what I can think of, the only reason why they use methylene blue is because this is the easiest way to quarantine them while selling them the same time as they are fresh off imports from overseas where it came out of the breeding pond(I will explain the breeding pond later on on the fry care section). Also, it looks cooler and is much more intimidating. I highly advice to not use just plain water or any type of chemicals. To keep the betta as happy as possible, I recommend IAL(indian almond leaf) aka catappa or ketapang. These leaves releases a natural tan acid that softens the water and mimics their natural habitat. This releases the fish stress, but also beware...it makes them a lot more aggressive the same time. Use 1 square inch of the leaf per gallon, take out the leaf when it starts to stink and degrade day by day. Leaving them in there to degrade fully, can result a dead betta for you. You want the tanning acid, not the the rotten leaf. If you are unable to find these type of leaf, or unable to order it from overseas. You can go out and buy BWE(black water extract). These works just about the same as IAL(indian almond leaf). It's just an extract of the leaf. Every overseas shipping of betta, will use IAL or BWE. As said before, it reduces the fish stress. Using 1 square inch of the leaf per gallon is just saving you more leaf only, but you can darken the tanning as much as you like. It causes no harm to the fish unlike any other chemicals such as methylene blue. Black water extract is about the same also, add the tanning color to your liking. Just don't add too much that you won't be able to see the fish clearly.
Let's talk about water change, from what I observed many other betta keeper. They do a 100% water change, which is just fine in fact! But that's not the problem that I see here. What the problem is, they use tap water. As hardy as a betta can be, certain city/town with bad tap water quality can cut your betta lifespan. Your best choice into changing the water is to age the tap water. What I mean by to age the tap water, is to fill a bucket with tap water and let it sit room temperature for 24 hours. This should allow the chlorine and fluoride to evaporate. Now you may add black water extract to it if you are going to use them. Best to not add them after your betta is settling in, you need to stir it! This way you are confirmed that it is not settled in 1 spot of the jar/tank. If your adding IAL, then you may add that after you have done a water change.
Filters and heaters? Let's say most bettas likes calm and quiet waters. Although a filter may be helpful, but please no more than a 5 gallon rated filter for a 10 gallon tank. As for heaters, if you live in a place that snows during the winter. Keep the water at least 75 degrees...
6 - Betta is much like most cichlids. They are willing to eat anything that will fit into their mouth. From prepared foods such as pellets(please avoid flakes/freeze dried for bettas, seriously), frozen, and live. As a young kid, most top brand pellets now a days aren't even invented yet. In the old days, I feed them pellets that are made by Top Fin. The only frozen I feed them is bloodworms, as they give me the best results due to the high protein. But please be aware of the high protein, it should not be a staple food for your betta. I feed them live foods in occasion if I wanted to see some eating action(PLEASE AVOID FISH FRYS IF YOU WISH TO BREED THEM IN THE FUTURE). Preferably lives foods would be bloodworms, mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, and california black worms. As for pellets, New Life Spectrum gives me the best result for the best coloring out of a betta.
7 - A few of the betta keeper likes to feed their betta greens. They like to peal off the skin of a pea and feed it to their betta. Many keepers may have their own experience, but my own experience. I think this is a pointless feeding habit. The rules of feeding them goes for any other fish, just feed what they can eat in short time. Do not over feed them unless you want them fat! Fat bettas do look nice if they are plakat, but they swim weird. Please reduce any greens, and too much of high proteins. Remember that high proteins will not give them the nutrients that they need. And they are not herbivores! Then how do they get their nutrients in the wild? They are insects eaters, and insects are omnivores, which brings them their nutrients that they need in the wild.
8 - Many betta keepers often wonder how does a betta need to be in able to breed? As far as what I experienced from breeding betta, I tried at all ages possible. The youngest age I got to breed is 4 months old! Yes, that's right, 4 months! Now some of you guys may think, ehh...maybe it's just a once in a while unusual thing. No, this is natural. As talking to some of the best betta breeder(overseas breeder), they experienced the same thing. And guess what else, I bred them at the age of 4 months old more than 10 times for each different male/female betta! So yes, they mature a lot faster than you expected.
Now let's move on to coloration, many will experience lots of different color changes in their betta throughout the betta's life. But their real dominant color appears when they are fully mature. And the full mature age is 8 month - 11 month depending on certain betta maturity growth.
9 - A domesticated and a wild betta? How is this possible? Many years ago, as wild splendid is such a great fighter with such great heart and fighting style. All the kids, adults, and elders takes these fish to fight for their own entertainment. Some likes to keep them as pets, and so on. Wild splendid are now known to be rare finding in the wild, although they still can be found, and it doesn't go for such high value either. And as you may see all the plakat bettas at your local pet store or fish store, most of them are a mixture of blue and red. Or just solid blue. Yes, wild splendid are blue and red! Many of the bettas you see in the store still contains the natural color of a wild splendid. Although wild splendid and domesticated splendid, they have a totally different look to them as the wild splendid is slimmer, longer, and a whole lot smaller. There 4 bettas that are true bettas. The splendid, smaragdina, mahachai, and the imbellis. The other 3 besides the splendid, has never come to a point where it turned into a domesticated betta. These 3 are not popular enough to be domesticated, due to the fact that they aren't as good of a fighter compared to the splendid. So many villagers are careless of capturing them for their entertainment. Although the smaragdina, mahachai, and imbellis are quite popular in Laos for bloodsports entertainment. But splendid are not qualify to go against these 3, as it is a totally different rank of fighters. Such as a heavy weight and a feather weight.
Now there is other wild bettas that sets a whole different standards between 2 sets of wild bettas. Most of these are mouth brooders such as the pugnax, macrostoma, PI, pulchra, prima, simplex, rubex, channoides, persephone, and many others I can not list. These wild bettas can be found through google, there isn't much secret to them.
10 - Breeding bettas is probably one of the toughest thing to do for a new betta keeper. First and very first thing you should do when breeding a betta. Condition them first, this is very important to be sure that they will breed when you let them go at it. Most new betta keeper will probably just think that you can just toss a male and a female for a short while of time and they will breed, this can end up in a disaster. The first step into conditioning the betta is to let them see each other day and night. This will help the female to develop the the eggs inside of her much faster for a breeding process. Some of the females already develop eggs without the male. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at least let them see each other for 24 hours before letting them go at it. If you see that your female eggs are dropping, then this is a must go breeding time! But in most cases, the males will start beating on the female. And this is normal, so don't freak out if you see that the female scales are starting to come off and her tails is starting to tear apart. This breeding process may take anywhere between 2 hour and a whole day and night. Some females will really put your male to a test before breeding, in other words...the female needs some real beating before she wants to breed. Some males don't want to breed at all, but just letting them fight with another male for a few minutes(5min-15min) will enhance their chance of wanting to breed greatly! But maybe a day of resting would be ideal if you were to let the male breed after the fight day to motivate the male into breeding mode. If the next day they haven't bred yet, it would be wise to take them out and restart the process all over again.
Feeding the male is a very important thing here, and live food is recommended to get this job done right. Although frozen may worked, but live is preferred as it keeps their hunger lower. I best recommend feeding as much as possible before the breeding session for 1 week. Use brine shrimps, california black worms, bloodworms, tubifex worms, and mosquito larvae(just be careful, you don't want to get cited by the city or wake up the next morning itching all over). During the nest guarding period of the male, you should take the female out right after breeding session is done. The female should be ready to condition and start another breeding after 2-3 weeks of resting/healing. 4th week is more ideal. During the guarding session of the male, PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE MALE. This is why you need to stuff the male as much as possible before breeding. If you do feed the male, all hell could go loose and it will start eating the eggs as you just sparked its hunger. Then the male will notice that the eggs are tasty and it can no longer be used for breeding. After day 5, when the frys are freely swim. You should now take out the male before it makes its own all you can eat buffet out of his own kids.
11 - What to do when your betta is sick or injured from fighting? Well, most people would probably depend on their handy "hospital" tank with temperature setting up high adding in aquarium salt and melafix. In my own experience of healing a wounded betta or sick betta, I don't use any of those stuff at all besides aquarium salt. Just set your temperature into about 80 degrees and add some aquarium salt and dead/sun dried banana leaf. That's right, banana leaves! These leaves works like wonders! If these leaves can't heal the wound and cure the sick of a betta. Nothing can do a better job. These aren't the leaves that you find at the banana plantation you see in Hawaii. These leaves are the leaves from South East Asia banana tree. Sun dried them until crisp and dry, or pick up the dead ones on the floor and wash them thoroughly and set them somewhere to dry. You can use as much leaves to your liking, but when it starts to sink and settled on the bottom for a day. Please take them out and change the water adding new leaves and aquarium salt. Some keeper likes to use bettafix, because its made for betta. Ehh? Seems to be about the same as melafix, but I don't like those stuff for betta. Still can't beat banana leaves. You can order a small banana tree overseas and plant it in your yard. ONE CAUTION, not worth it if you live in places where it has frost during the winter and snows during the winter. It will kill the tree instantly...ordering the leaves overseas can also be helpful. After all, they're not expensive at all...
12 - How hard can it be taking care of a betta fry? You want to know how hard it can be? Let the newly swimming frys starve for a few minutes, and this can wipe out half the population of your frys...scary ehh? This is why most overseas breeders raise plentiful of infusorias for the frys to feed on while they don't have the time to check on the frys. Not only that, infusoria is easily populated, and also the easiest for the new swimming frys to thrive on as it can fit most of the new swimming frys mouth. The reason why most inexperienced breeders ends up with 20 frys when 200+ eggs were laid and hatched. Its either the starvation, or what they are feeding the frys. Starting them off on fry fish food is probably the worst thing you can do to feed them. Most of the frys likes to chase their food and eat them. Especially it needs to be live food...now what most inexperienced breeder also does wrong about live food is that they start them off on microworms, vinegar eels, or baby brine shrimp. As they may be able to eat a few of them, these are still too big to eat to most of the frys. How to make your own infusoria? You can start off with half of a 2 liter bottle. Fill up the half 2 liter bottle with tap water, put in the boiled lettuce, and set it where it will get most of the sun shine. This will produce infusoria in no time. Basically, any water that is green, contains infusoria. Which explains why many breeders overseas use large concrete ponds or hundreds of gallons pots filled with plants and set out into the sun. This creates plenty of infusoria for the frys. If you are going to make infusoria, please make them a week or 2 before you breed your betta. After a week, they should be starting on their baby brine shrimp and vinegar eels. Please avoid microworms, they don't last long and they stinks. Vinegar eels have the potential to last a few weeks in the water without dying if they are left uneaten. And unlike microworms where it sink, vinegar eels sticks to the top which makes it easier for the frys to feed on.
13 - Now here is where it gets interesting. And this might bring many of you "cichlid" fans into betta now. I'm going to talk about half giant and true giant betta here. Half giant betta reaches about 3½", while the true giant betta will push its limit everything to 6"...even 7" if given the proper care and home!!! Now is it a monster??? Many of the betta keeper out there will highly disregard this and would careless because they would think I am probably making such thing thing. The "king betta" that you see around at your local fish store or pet store, those are all half giants. A giant betta and a regular size betta doesn't have anything much different, just that getting to reach the size that you wanted takes the betta home(tank size) into a whole different level from the regular betta. If you want to push a giant betta into a 6" monster, or even a 7" if your even lucky enough? I would highly recommend at least a 40 gallon long. Keep a single giant betta in there. And do the rest of its proper care and feeding like a regular betta. Search on aquabid, true giants hits near the $100 mark zone. I've seen a 7" for sale for $300 and is easily taken from the owner hand the next day. One problem about giant betta only, do you got the $$$? For a giant BETTA???
14 - My most and all time topic of bettas. The fighters of a domesticated splendid. As we all know, bettas start out as a bloodsport in the old days which had brought betta here in the USA. Then there goes all the fancies from numerous breeding and genetic technology. As most of you guys might have heard around, 5* fighters is to be ranked as the top most rated fighters of all time. But the star term is just a literary used for selling them. In the real game, they are careless of the name and stars ranking. They want QUALITY, and only QUALITY of their fighters. In the most parts of South East Asia, this bloodsports is still highly popular among all kids, teenagers, adults, and the elders who are the most knowledge kind of the sport. They look just about the same as the regular plakat you see at the local fish store or pet store. But what is different about them is, does the fish has what it takes to win its victory in the ring?
I know that there are a few things I did not mentioned or speak of(I just spent 4 hours and 40 min to finish this, my back is killing me here now). If you need me to clear anything out for you, please feel free to drop a question and I will answer back to you as soon as possible! Thanks for reading the Betta Bible!
P.S. - Sorry no pictures at the moment, will add pictures later when I get them in from a overseas breeder for further explaination on identification/breeding and caring for your lovely betta! TO BE CONTINUE!
1. What is a betta?
2. Where did they first originated?
3. Different types of domesticated splendid?
4 How to identify between a male/female plakat?
5. Betta proper tank/home?
6. Betta food?
7. Proper feeding?
8. Betta maturing for breeding/full color spectrum?
9. Domesticated and wild differences?
10. How to breed betta properly?
11. Injured/sick betta...what to do?
12. Betta's fry care?
13. Half giant vs true giant?
14. And my favorite of all times...fighters!!!
1 - So what are betta exactly? Betta is a small fish, most common ones are no bigger than 2½" long from mouth to tail(although I've seen 3"). They are a fish that is super aggressive against their own kind. Betta is a solitary fish by nature, much like many of the aggressive cichlids out there. A labyrinth fish, which means they don't need any oxygen in their water and breathe from the same atmosphere as we do. Also one of the world wide most popular fish, due to their easy care level and a good start for someone who is fairly new at fish keeping.
2 - Almost every single betta you see out there originated from the entire South East Asia countries. Such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar(aka Burma), and Indonesia. These betta became popular for their fighting ability and nature. As a young kid in South East Asia, they would go into large calm ponds or rice paddies after a flood and catch these betta. They were used for entertainments such as many of the other bloodsports that were being used as entertainments in different countries.
3 - Different types of domesticated splendid? They are all the same fish, just different tail looks(aka fancies). The first and most common you'll probably see them around is a short/round tail, or as others call it...plakat. And yes, it is as what it sounds like. They have the shortest tail or round circular tail. Next is the halfmoon, they have a tail the shape of a halfmoon. These are the most sought after as they produce the most vibrant colors out of all other fancies. Veil tail, the first fancy that was ever invented. These are just a plakat with long fins, much similar to a veil tail oscar. Next is the crowntail, and as it sounds, these fish have a tail much like a crown. They have a long spike like tails. A combtail, which is also known as a half sun tail. The look of their tail are similar to a brush. Creating this breed is mainly from a halfmoon x crowntail. Sometimes you get different results(looks), but often you should receive a combtail. Delta, delta is very similar to a halfmoon. But their tail span doesn't form a shape of a halfmoon. It's more of a 160 degrees shape. But with a tail of being very long like the veiltail. Super delta, many inexperience betta keepers gets the super delta and the delta confuses. They look very alike. But they are just plainly an enhanced version of the delta. Just a shy of being a full halfmoon betta. But another thing you can take notice that it's a super delta is that these guys also have longer tail than the delta. Doubletail, this bred of fancy should be fairly easy to identify. Just look for a veil tail that is split in half(naturally, not ripped apart in half). Rosetail, these bettas have the largest tail out of all bettas out there. Probably all fish species! Rosetail is much similar to a halfmoon. But has a tail span over 180 degrees, which is what a halfmoon is suppose to have.
4 - They both look the same? How can you tell? Well, the answer is simple. In an untrained eye, a male and a female plakat(short/round tail) look just like the same. The cruelest way(not encouraging anyone to do this, but its a technique i figured out) and easiest way to tell the difference between a male and a female. Leave them both(male and female) in nice warm water, scoop them out and drop them in cold water. They both should turn as pale as they possibly can. To reassure that they have turned as pale as they can, dip them back into the warm water that you took them out of earlier from. The female will have the darkest and most noticeable stress line. The stress line are 2 gray/black lines running alone the side of the body. Also, females have a more blunt shape of a head, and their ventral or also known as pelvic fin are much smaller than a male. Now this is where it gets more complicated. Some males will have a very short pelvic fin(this is really rare in my own experience), just like the females. Now how do you identify them? If you are in rush of finding out which is male and which is female? Flare them, most females do not have the potential to give a full flare as male does. Their flare gills are much shorter than a male. Another way you can identify them is putting them along side together for 24 hours(longer if needed for full confirm of identification). No male except very few will be scared and try to run away from one another. On average base, most betta that try to run away are usually females. If not, they will start to develop a vertical bars along the side of its body. This tells you which is female. Now some people say how do you know still? Males develop vertical bars also? The answer is simple. The ones with darker vertical bars is usually a female, if your unsure. Just wait and see which betta will have a bigger stomach.
5 - Can betta really live in such a small home? In other words, fishbowl aka betta bowl? Yes, most betta can thrive in such a small home. But this doesn't mean that there is no limit to their home sizes, there is a limit for a fact. Bettas may be able to survive in such small home. But like many other fish, a small home can mean stunting their growth potential. The minimum I would recommend for a betta is a ½ gallon jar/tank. This does means they don't have a bigger size limit tank? From my own experience, a lot of them do. As you should know, betta doesn't require that much space. Therefore, such large tanks aren't really necessary if you wish to keep more than a few. I would say that a 10 gal should be your absolute maximum home size for your betta. Such large tanks as 30 gal and more can be stressful to most betta. They aren't heavy energy users and like to get their air fast(keep in mind, they are labyrinth fish, so large tanks may not be suitable).
Now let's go on from here. As what I see from most inexperienced store that sells betta, they use methylene blue to keep betta in betta cups. And from what I can think of, the only reason why they use methylene blue is because this is the easiest way to quarantine them while selling them the same time as they are fresh off imports from overseas where it came out of the breeding pond(I will explain the breeding pond later on on the fry care section). Also, it looks cooler and is much more intimidating. I highly advice to not use just plain water or any type of chemicals. To keep the betta as happy as possible, I recommend IAL(indian almond leaf) aka catappa or ketapang. These leaves releases a natural tan acid that softens the water and mimics their natural habitat. This releases the fish stress, but also beware...it makes them a lot more aggressive the same time. Use 1 square inch of the leaf per gallon, take out the leaf when it starts to stink and degrade day by day. Leaving them in there to degrade fully, can result a dead betta for you. You want the tanning acid, not the the rotten leaf. If you are unable to find these type of leaf, or unable to order it from overseas. You can go out and buy BWE(black water extract). These works just about the same as IAL(indian almond leaf). It's just an extract of the leaf. Every overseas shipping of betta, will use IAL or BWE. As said before, it reduces the fish stress. Using 1 square inch of the leaf per gallon is just saving you more leaf only, but you can darken the tanning as much as you like. It causes no harm to the fish unlike any other chemicals such as methylene blue. Black water extract is about the same also, add the tanning color to your liking. Just don't add too much that you won't be able to see the fish clearly.
Let's talk about water change, from what I observed many other betta keeper. They do a 100% water change, which is just fine in fact! But that's not the problem that I see here. What the problem is, they use tap water. As hardy as a betta can be, certain city/town with bad tap water quality can cut your betta lifespan. Your best choice into changing the water is to age the tap water. What I mean by to age the tap water, is to fill a bucket with tap water and let it sit room temperature for 24 hours. This should allow the chlorine and fluoride to evaporate. Now you may add black water extract to it if you are going to use them. Best to not add them after your betta is settling in, you need to stir it! This way you are confirmed that it is not settled in 1 spot of the jar/tank. If your adding IAL, then you may add that after you have done a water change.
Filters and heaters? Let's say most bettas likes calm and quiet waters. Although a filter may be helpful, but please no more than a 5 gallon rated filter for a 10 gallon tank. As for heaters, if you live in a place that snows during the winter. Keep the water at least 75 degrees...
6 - Betta is much like most cichlids. They are willing to eat anything that will fit into their mouth. From prepared foods such as pellets(please avoid flakes/freeze dried for bettas, seriously), frozen, and live. As a young kid, most top brand pellets now a days aren't even invented yet. In the old days, I feed them pellets that are made by Top Fin. The only frozen I feed them is bloodworms, as they give me the best results due to the high protein. But please be aware of the high protein, it should not be a staple food for your betta. I feed them live foods in occasion if I wanted to see some eating action(PLEASE AVOID FISH FRYS IF YOU WISH TO BREED THEM IN THE FUTURE). Preferably lives foods would be bloodworms, mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, and california black worms. As for pellets, New Life Spectrum gives me the best result for the best coloring out of a betta.
7 - A few of the betta keeper likes to feed their betta greens. They like to peal off the skin of a pea and feed it to their betta. Many keepers may have their own experience, but my own experience. I think this is a pointless feeding habit. The rules of feeding them goes for any other fish, just feed what they can eat in short time. Do not over feed them unless you want them fat! Fat bettas do look nice if they are plakat, but they swim weird. Please reduce any greens, and too much of high proteins. Remember that high proteins will not give them the nutrients that they need. And they are not herbivores! Then how do they get their nutrients in the wild? They are insects eaters, and insects are omnivores, which brings them their nutrients that they need in the wild.
8 - Many betta keepers often wonder how does a betta need to be in able to breed? As far as what I experienced from breeding betta, I tried at all ages possible. The youngest age I got to breed is 4 months old! Yes, that's right, 4 months! Now some of you guys may think, ehh...maybe it's just a once in a while unusual thing. No, this is natural. As talking to some of the best betta breeder(overseas breeder), they experienced the same thing. And guess what else, I bred them at the age of 4 months old more than 10 times for each different male/female betta! So yes, they mature a lot faster than you expected.
Now let's move on to coloration, many will experience lots of different color changes in their betta throughout the betta's life. But their real dominant color appears when they are fully mature. And the full mature age is 8 month - 11 month depending on certain betta maturity growth.
9 - A domesticated and a wild betta? How is this possible? Many years ago, as wild splendid is such a great fighter with such great heart and fighting style. All the kids, adults, and elders takes these fish to fight for their own entertainment. Some likes to keep them as pets, and so on. Wild splendid are now known to be rare finding in the wild, although they still can be found, and it doesn't go for such high value either. And as you may see all the plakat bettas at your local pet store or fish store, most of them are a mixture of blue and red. Or just solid blue. Yes, wild splendid are blue and red! Many of the bettas you see in the store still contains the natural color of a wild splendid. Although wild splendid and domesticated splendid, they have a totally different look to them as the wild splendid is slimmer, longer, and a whole lot smaller. There 4 bettas that are true bettas. The splendid, smaragdina, mahachai, and the imbellis. The other 3 besides the splendid, has never come to a point where it turned into a domesticated betta. These 3 are not popular enough to be domesticated, due to the fact that they aren't as good of a fighter compared to the splendid. So many villagers are careless of capturing them for their entertainment. Although the smaragdina, mahachai, and imbellis are quite popular in Laos for bloodsports entertainment. But splendid are not qualify to go against these 3, as it is a totally different rank of fighters. Such as a heavy weight and a feather weight.
Now there is other wild bettas that sets a whole different standards between 2 sets of wild bettas. Most of these are mouth brooders such as the pugnax, macrostoma, PI, pulchra, prima, simplex, rubex, channoides, persephone, and many others I can not list. These wild bettas can be found through google, there isn't much secret to them.
10 - Breeding bettas is probably one of the toughest thing to do for a new betta keeper. First and very first thing you should do when breeding a betta. Condition them first, this is very important to be sure that they will breed when you let them go at it. Most new betta keeper will probably just think that you can just toss a male and a female for a short while of time and they will breed, this can end up in a disaster. The first step into conditioning the betta is to let them see each other day and night. This will help the female to develop the the eggs inside of her much faster for a breeding process. Some of the females already develop eggs without the male. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at least let them see each other for 24 hours before letting them go at it. If you see that your female eggs are dropping, then this is a must go breeding time! But in most cases, the males will start beating on the female. And this is normal, so don't freak out if you see that the female scales are starting to come off and her tails is starting to tear apart. This breeding process may take anywhere between 2 hour and a whole day and night. Some females will really put your male to a test before breeding, in other words...the female needs some real beating before she wants to breed. Some males don't want to breed at all, but just letting them fight with another male for a few minutes(5min-15min) will enhance their chance of wanting to breed greatly! But maybe a day of resting would be ideal if you were to let the male breed after the fight day to motivate the male into breeding mode. If the next day they haven't bred yet, it would be wise to take them out and restart the process all over again.
Feeding the male is a very important thing here, and live food is recommended to get this job done right. Although frozen may worked, but live is preferred as it keeps their hunger lower. I best recommend feeding as much as possible before the breeding session for 1 week. Use brine shrimps, california black worms, bloodworms, tubifex worms, and mosquito larvae(just be careful, you don't want to get cited by the city or wake up the next morning itching all over). During the nest guarding period of the male, you should take the female out right after breeding session is done. The female should be ready to condition and start another breeding after 2-3 weeks of resting/healing. 4th week is more ideal. During the guarding session of the male, PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE MALE. This is why you need to stuff the male as much as possible before breeding. If you do feed the male, all hell could go loose and it will start eating the eggs as you just sparked its hunger. Then the male will notice that the eggs are tasty and it can no longer be used for breeding. After day 5, when the frys are freely swim. You should now take out the male before it makes its own all you can eat buffet out of his own kids.
11 - What to do when your betta is sick or injured from fighting? Well, most people would probably depend on their handy "hospital" tank with temperature setting up high adding in aquarium salt and melafix. In my own experience of healing a wounded betta or sick betta, I don't use any of those stuff at all besides aquarium salt. Just set your temperature into about 80 degrees and add some aquarium salt and dead/sun dried banana leaf. That's right, banana leaves! These leaves works like wonders! If these leaves can't heal the wound and cure the sick of a betta. Nothing can do a better job. These aren't the leaves that you find at the banana plantation you see in Hawaii. These leaves are the leaves from South East Asia banana tree. Sun dried them until crisp and dry, or pick up the dead ones on the floor and wash them thoroughly and set them somewhere to dry. You can use as much leaves to your liking, but when it starts to sink and settled on the bottom for a day. Please take them out and change the water adding new leaves and aquarium salt. Some keeper likes to use bettafix, because its made for betta. Ehh? Seems to be about the same as melafix, but I don't like those stuff for betta. Still can't beat banana leaves. You can order a small banana tree overseas and plant it in your yard. ONE CAUTION, not worth it if you live in places where it has frost during the winter and snows during the winter. It will kill the tree instantly...ordering the leaves overseas can also be helpful. After all, they're not expensive at all...
12 - How hard can it be taking care of a betta fry? You want to know how hard it can be? Let the newly swimming frys starve for a few minutes, and this can wipe out half the population of your frys...scary ehh? This is why most overseas breeders raise plentiful of infusorias for the frys to feed on while they don't have the time to check on the frys. Not only that, infusoria is easily populated, and also the easiest for the new swimming frys to thrive on as it can fit most of the new swimming frys mouth. The reason why most inexperienced breeders ends up with 20 frys when 200+ eggs were laid and hatched. Its either the starvation, or what they are feeding the frys. Starting them off on fry fish food is probably the worst thing you can do to feed them. Most of the frys likes to chase their food and eat them. Especially it needs to be live food...now what most inexperienced breeder also does wrong about live food is that they start them off on microworms, vinegar eels, or baby brine shrimp. As they may be able to eat a few of them, these are still too big to eat to most of the frys. How to make your own infusoria? You can start off with half of a 2 liter bottle. Fill up the half 2 liter bottle with tap water, put in the boiled lettuce, and set it where it will get most of the sun shine. This will produce infusoria in no time. Basically, any water that is green, contains infusoria. Which explains why many breeders overseas use large concrete ponds or hundreds of gallons pots filled with plants and set out into the sun. This creates plenty of infusoria for the frys. If you are going to make infusoria, please make them a week or 2 before you breed your betta. After a week, they should be starting on their baby brine shrimp and vinegar eels. Please avoid microworms, they don't last long and they stinks. Vinegar eels have the potential to last a few weeks in the water without dying if they are left uneaten. And unlike microworms where it sink, vinegar eels sticks to the top which makes it easier for the frys to feed on.
13 - Now here is where it gets interesting. And this might bring many of you "cichlid" fans into betta now. I'm going to talk about half giant and true giant betta here. Half giant betta reaches about 3½", while the true giant betta will push its limit everything to 6"...even 7" if given the proper care and home!!! Now is it a monster??? Many of the betta keeper out there will highly disregard this and would careless because they would think I am probably making such thing thing. The "king betta" that you see around at your local fish store or pet store, those are all half giants. A giant betta and a regular size betta doesn't have anything much different, just that getting to reach the size that you wanted takes the betta home(tank size) into a whole different level from the regular betta. If you want to push a giant betta into a 6" monster, or even a 7" if your even lucky enough? I would highly recommend at least a 40 gallon long. Keep a single giant betta in there. And do the rest of its proper care and feeding like a regular betta. Search on aquabid, true giants hits near the $100 mark zone. I've seen a 7" for sale for $300 and is easily taken from the owner hand the next day. One problem about giant betta only, do you got the $$$? For a giant BETTA???
14 - My most and all time topic of bettas. The fighters of a domesticated splendid. As we all know, bettas start out as a bloodsport in the old days which had brought betta here in the USA. Then there goes all the fancies from numerous breeding and genetic technology. As most of you guys might have heard around, 5* fighters is to be ranked as the top most rated fighters of all time. But the star term is just a literary used for selling them. In the real game, they are careless of the name and stars ranking. They want QUALITY, and only QUALITY of their fighters. In the most parts of South East Asia, this bloodsports is still highly popular among all kids, teenagers, adults, and the elders who are the most knowledge kind of the sport. They look just about the same as the regular plakat you see at the local fish store or pet store. But what is different about them is, does the fish has what it takes to win its victory in the ring?
I know that there are a few things I did not mentioned or speak of(I just spent 4 hours and 40 min to finish this, my back is killing me here now). If you need me to clear anything out for you, please feel free to drop a question and I will answer back to you as soon as possible! Thanks for reading the Betta Bible!
P.S. - Sorry no pictures at the moment, will add pictures later when I get them in from a overseas breeder for further explaination on identification/breeding and caring for your lovely betta! TO BE CONTINUE!
