BETTA FISH
Welcome to my comprehensive care guide for betta fish. I hope you have enjoyed your life thus far because if you're anything like me this is going to take it over. While betta fish are not hard to keep, there are some things you'll want to consider to give them the best life possible, even if they can survive some less than ideal conditions. The goal is THRIVING not just surviving.
HABITAT
Let's go in order of how you would set up a tank.
Betta fish need at least five gallons. Full stop. Read it again. Betta fish sould not live in a tank or container less than five gallons. If you cannot provide this, you don't need a betta fish. Even though they can survive in less, they are suffering and you would be causing it. But also, even though five gollons in minimum, the bigger the tank the better.
Only continue if you can acknowledge this. Ready? Let's continue.
Time for the dirt. Or gravel. Or sand. It doen't matter to the fish, this up to you baby. I use aquarium stratum for my planted tanks and gravel for my not planted ones. There are really no wrong answers for this one, even if you choose no substrte and leave the bottom empty, just pay attention to if you need to rinse the substrate or let it sit after filling the water up to clear.
Filter time. Optional in my experiance, but definately recommended. My personal favorite type of filter is sponge filters. But betta fish are labrynth fish, so they breathe fron the surface, not from the water, so it's not completely necessary to have a filter as long as our doing regular water changes. I do however recommend having one, as it helps keep your tank and betta fish healthy. The filter helps in keeping the good bacteria good and nitrogen cycle cycling. Sponge filters are my favorite because they are very gentle, are quiet, and have little to no maintenance required. If you want to know more about filters than that, look somewhere else.
Now, you may go to a fish section of a store and be like, "Wow, there are so many cool fake plants, I want all of them!" Wait. Read this first. I'm not saying the plastic plants are bad, just that you should hear me out first. Hard plastic plants can really easily cut fins and hurt the fish. There are just better options and I will tell you them.
If you want fake plants only in your tank, get some silk plants. Silk plants are much gentler on fins and don't cut. Easy peasy.
But, if you want the best choice, live plants are the way to go. Not only are they soft on the betta fins, but they are also great for the tank water. They clean the water and overall look the best in my opinion. You just have to have a little time on your hands to do research and maintenance on the plants you choose.
Next, cold water is bad, they are tropical fish after all. Betta fish like water with the temperature between 78° and 81° Fahrenheit. You will likely need a heater if the room the tank is in isn't really hot. I recommend getting a programable heater and thermometer so you have better control over the temperature, but if all you have or can get is a regular aquarium heater it's going to be fine.
DECHLORINATE THE WATER! If you don't, it is certain death for any fish. Also, don't bother buying "betta water" that comes in the small bottles, just use clean water and a dechlorinator. You absolutely cannot skip this.
That sums up how to set up a betta tank, it's easy as pie.
*It's important to note that betta fish jump, either have a lid on your tank or keep the water level a bit lower than full to prevent them from jumping out.*
FOOD
Betta fish are carnivores and they love to hunt their food. I will go over the types of food and how I personally choose to feed my fish.
PELLETS are fine, good even. Especially if you get a high value pellet that is high in protein. I recommend pellets to feed bettas on the regular, it's relatively cheap and there are formulas specifically for bettas or good quality high protien less filers out there. I personally feed pellets most days to my fish.
FLAKES can work, I personally don't like flakes. Flakes can dirty the water faster and tend to not be as high quality as pellets in my experiance. I did once have a betta that would only eat flakes once though.
DRIED BLOODWORMS are good, I don't recommend them though. They make good easy treats for bettas.
FROZEN BLOOODWORMS are amazing. High protein and they trigger the hunting instinct in bettas. They are the type of food that bettas would eat in the wild. Don't be alarmed by the name though, it's because of the color that they're called bloodworms, not that they eat blood. I personally feed my bettas bloodworms once a week regularly, except when breeding, then it's bloodworms everyday.
BLACKWORMS are also amazing and although they blackworms are not availble in my area, I would feed if I could. A high protien live food that is extremely nutritious for bettas that is similar to what they would eat in the wild and triggers their hunting instict.
BRINE SHRIMP are good. However, full grown bettas may have trouble noticing brine shrimp and they die in fresh water and will rot in the tank if not eaten fast enough. I personally don't recommend for full grown bettas.
DAPHNIA are good for bettas. If you are going to feed daphnia, I recommend live daphnia that will just live in the tank if not eaten right away. Daphnia is great for betta digestion and hunting instincts. I personally don't have daphnia.
MAINTENANCE
Most aquariums need water changes, unless it's a no water change system, then only top-offs are necessary. This keeps the good bacteria good, the nitrogen cycling, and the ammonia low. Try and aim for a weekly water change of 25%, do not change 100% of the water or the good bacteria wont grow and the nitrogen cycle will reset every 100% change. Go ahead and also siphon away poop from the bottom while you do water changes.
Don't have your tank in drect sunlight or the algae will grow out of control. While on the topic of algae, it will grow on at least the glass, feel free to scape it off with an algae scraper or a clean sponge. If algae grows in other places, you may need a clean up crew, such as shrimp and snails, they get along with bettas most of the time.
If you have live plants you will need to do various maintenance on them, including trimings, fertilization, and other up keeps. But this isn't a plant guide.
FUN STUFFS
Betta fish are super smart and you can train them to do simple tricks. I have little experiance with this though and you should ask someone else for help with this one.
Shrimp and snails are usually a betta's best friends, depending on the betta that is. I keep cherry shrimp, blue dream shimp, and yellow goldenback shrimp in my betta tanks with little to no problems. As long as the shrimp and the betta isn't the same color they'll likely be fine together, unless your betta is really agressive by personality. Snails are also usually good tank makes as long as the betta isn't an agressive personality, but I hate snails most of the time and only have a single magenta mystery snail.
Breeding bettas seems like it's fun, but it is so much work and barely worth it. I do not recommend for anyone who isn't experianced and super committed to betta fish as a lifestyle. Bettas are hard to breed and baby bettas are hard to keep alive.
SORORITIES
I would not recommend a sorority to a new betta keeper, but here's a guide on giving yourself the best shot at it.
Twenty gallons minimum and five females minimum. No males should be kept together and twenty gallons is only big enough for the minimun five fish. The bigger the tank the better, the more room they have apart the better. The tank needs to be heavily planted to break eye contact and have lots of hiding places.
Sister fish are less likely to kill each other than fish that weren't raised together. The more fish you keep together the better, it makes them less likely to gang up on each other and kill each other. Personality of each fish also must be more docile and open to friends, fish with agressive personalities will kill others.