Why a Betta is an Excellent First Fish for Children

When my son Robby wanted to raise fish, I was clueless about aquariums and tropical fish. I figured we could throw some goldfish in a bowl, toss in some food once in a while and the fish would take care of everything else.

Well, it turned out not to be that simple. The clerk at the pet store explained to us that we needed things like heaters, and lamps, a filtering system, gravel, plants, nets, and a dozen other things that brought to the price tag to well over $150. Call me cheap, but that's a lot of money to spend on a hobby a child may lose interest in. I had hoped for a less expensive solution, but there just didn't seem to be one. In the end, we spent the $150 and bought some guppies, which lived for about 3 weeks.

Since that time, our family has learned a lot about taking care of tropical fish. To properly care for a large community of fish, you must make the investment in a quality aquarium system. However, if all your child wants is a single fish in a small bedside bowl, we discovered that nothing beats a Betta for beauty, value, and ease of care. Bettas, also known as Siamese Fighting fish, are brightly colored freshwater fish with long, flowing fins. Bettas are easy to care for because they do not require special aquarium equipment such as lights, heaters, or filters that most other tropical fish seem to need. We keep our Betta in a 2 gallon goldfish bowl we found at a local thrift store for $3.

Basic Betta care & costs

Bettas are inexpensive to purchase~they currently retail for $2.99 at a local pet store~ and inexpensive to feed. We feed ours HBH Betta bites which retails at about $1.90 for a 1.4 oz container. Because these fish only require a couple of granules of food a day, the container lasts us almost a year.

Without a filtering system, you do have to manually change out the water; at our house, the fish bowl gets cleaned out once a month, smaller tanks will need to be cleaned more often. Instead of using distilled water or a dechlorinator, we set aside a gallon of tap water in an open container for a day. This allows the chlorine to evaporate and brings the water to room temperature. When we change the water, we pour out half of the old water and replenish it with the fresh; it's that simple. Sometimes, the fish bowl can build up a little algae on the sides. This can be wiped down with a paper towel just before the water change.

Half the fun of owning a fish is decorating the aquarium. Our Betta bowl has a bit of colored gravel and some over sized marbles. We also included a live plant which not only provides shelter, oxygen, and nutrition for the fish but also helps maintain a cleaner tank. The total cost for these items were less than $8. Fun accessories like scuba divers and treasure chests are more expensive and cost between $5-10.

There are some key things to remember about Bettas, the most important is that they must be kept separate from other fish, including other Bettas. These fish are also very good jumpers and will jump out of the tank without proper precautions. Most Betta tanks do come with special lids. If you bought a used tank, however, you'll either want to make a plastic cover with air holes or leave 3" of air space. A final note, is that while it is not necessary to have a heater for your Betta, they do prefer temperatures between 65-75. Keep your Betta away from windows and vents and they'll do just fine.

Of all the fish in our home, "Bubbles" the Betta has been the easiest to care for, and the one that draws the most attention from visiting guests. We've had him for 7 years now, which is why Bettas are the fish I always recommend for any child who asks "Mom, could I have a fish, please?"