How to Care for a Betta Fish

Lately, many people have caught onto the betta fish craze. If you are one of those folks, then you probably want to keep it alive for as long as possible. In this article, I will give tips for keeping your betta fish alive as long as possible.

The most important step is a pretty obvious one. You must have a good tank for this fish or it will not last long. These are easy to find at pretty much any store, but those will be no good for your betta fish. Simply put, these small containers do not provide enough space for your fish and they will cause some health problems. The ideal tank size is something larger than two gallons. Anything smaller will cause the waste content to be much too concentrated.

It might not seem like a logical thing to do, but making the fish's home beautiful will go a long way to making your fish happy. Make sure to decorate the tank with some rocks that are made of great colors. If you want to buy plant-like structures, be sure to get the real thing. Plastic plants have a tendency to cause shredding to your betta fish's tail. You will want to be careful with this because many things will hurt your fish's tail.

When you get the tank decorated appropriately, you will want to fill it up with water. Obviously, you want to put enough water in so that the fish will stay put. In general, the tank should be about four fifths full of water. Most people do not realize that betta fish can jump pretty high and they could jump out if you have do not have enough water in the tank.

The next thing that must be done is treatment of the water. You must go find some water condition treatment product and put it in your water immediately. These products do not cost too much and they should provide ample instruction on how much to put into the tank. The benefit of this solution is that it takes all of the chlorine out of the water and gets rid of those harmful cholarmines.

Like any other fish tank, you will have to equip a betta fish tank with a filter. It is important to put your tank through a nitrogen treatment period, which might take as long as a month. This is essential to your fish's health, so do so before you dump the fish into the tank. The filter must be purchased with your betta fish in mind. They are very relaxed fish and hate to fight an especially strong current from the filter. If you make the mistake of buying a small betta tank, then you can clean it weekly without the help of a filter. Otherwise, you will need a filter.

When you are ready to put your fish into the water, you want to be careful to help it adjust to the changes in its environment. Start by putting the plastic bag down into the water for a while and letting the temperature adjust. Then, you will want to slowly pour some aquarium water into your betta fish bag at small increments, allowing for a gradual change. After you have done this for a while, dump your fish into the tank and watch it enjoy the environment.

Feeding your betta is something that must be done with great care. You can find betta food at your local pet store, but it is generally a good idea to use a combination of betta fish food in order to achieve a healthy diet. Most betta owners agree that bloodworms are a healthy choice and favorite of the fish, so start with those. If you do these things, you should have a long living betta fish.