Bettas For You

EARTHQUAKE???

2009-12-22T12:55:00.001-08:00

This is really scaring me, but my fish have been acting strange lately. They keep on trying to escape and now I think there's going to be like a earthquake really soon!!!

Videos of My Fish

2009-12-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

Well it is winter break so I took some videos of my bettas. (and my sister's)
I posted them on youtube, I tried to post them on here but i have no idea how to do that. ugh user unfriendly blogger. anyways here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Bzab_3Kgw

that's a video of my fish maggot

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMJHmvB3oY&feature=channel

that's a video of extreme tatoo.

Aquarium of the Pacific

2009-12-21T19:34:00.000-08:00

Today, we went to the Aqarium of the Pacific at Long Beach.

I just love this picture. It has a lot of fish from finding nemo!

an octupus at the gift shop. adorable

this fish was so fast i barely got a picture of it!

HUUUGEEE crab!

Information on Goldfish

2009-12-20T20:26:00.001-08:00

Chances are, you probably had a goldfish as a pet one time or another. And chances are, it probably died in a couple of days. Goldfish are in fact, pretty hard to take care of. My sister the fish murderer probably had about 200 of them. Well goldfish, it needs about a 10 gallon tank for the SMALLEST ONES. Always follow the rule one inch per gallon. There are many awesome kinds of goldfish. There are the cheap 25 cent ones at a pet store, and there are ones that cost hundreds of dollars. Goldfish will survive a long time if you take care of them properly. There are goldfish that survived for 50 years. We currently have one goldfish named Bobert. He lives in a 2 gallon hexigonal tank. I don't really know much about goldfish, but my extremly experienced sister does. My sister saids that the best food for hexagonal tanks are granules since they sink and the fish actually know that it's food and stuff. She saids that a filter and an airstone is a must because goldfish need a lot of oxygen.

Our Bettas

2009-12-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

The first photo is my gorgeously beautiful betta Maggot in its comfty 2.5 gallon tank. It is a halfmoon betta but seriously, it doesn't look like one! It is extremly energetic and it has an interesting personality. Oh yeah, and it comes to the surface when i open the tank's lid, thinking it would be fed. pretty awesome

The second picture is my sister's betta Extreme Tatoo. The tank is a 1/2 gallon bowl from PETCO. Urgh this is an unacceptable size, but my sister insists. It is a male deltatail from petco. It's very energetic, considering its tank's size.

Haha, obviously we named each other's betta. At my aunt's house we have a dark blue crowntail betta kept in a 1/3 full 10 gallon tank. Ugh my aunt did everything bad you can possibly do to a betta. So i consider it SAVEDDD

Water Conditions

2009-12-20T15:50:00.001-08:00

Bettas are labyrinth fish, which means they breathe water from the surface. Make sure you get a tank that isn't too high or your betta would have to swim alllllll the way up to get a breath of air. Filters are usually not needed for bettas. Bettas normally have long fins so it is kinda hard for it to swim with all the current going on. The temperature should be ideally between 78 and 80 degrees. Get a adjustable thermoniter if you really want to be accurate. I just have a simple mini heater that just increases the tank's temperature by about 5 degrees. It isn't that accurate but it works enough to increase the total temperature in the tank.

Taking Care of a Betta

2009-12-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

Bettas are agressive. As in REALLLLLLY agressive. Do NOT put them in the same tank. They will fight to the death. However, if you have a extremly large tank, you can keep female ones together. (with many many hiding places) Do not attempt to mate bettas unless you are really experienced and skilled in keeping bettas.

Feed your betta according to the instructions in the food you got. Bettas are very picky eater, therefore sometimes it takes a while for them to get used to the food. Sometimes they have no idea if it is really food or not. (if you have a big tank) So I put one piece of floating pellet food and started poking it with my finger to create currents. I think my betta felt the water current of something and came to "hunt". You can give your betta bloodworms of brine shrimp as an occasional treat.

If you have a small betta tank (1 gallon or less), then you should probably completely change the water every couple of days. That can get tireing after a while. Thank god i have my good old 2.5 gallon tank. I do a 50% water change every week. Every 2 weeks I give it a 100% water change. Okay so I'll explain the concept of the 50% and the 100% water changes for you. When you do a 50% water change, you keep the betta in its tank and scoop out about 50% of the water and slowly replace the water. (keep both waters room temperature) When you do a 100% water change, take the betta out using the soft net you got and put it in an another bowl of water. Take all the water out of the current tank. Remove all the gravel, decorations, plants, etc. Clean them with warm water, and put it back in the tank. Slowly fill the tank with prepared warm water. Finally, replace your betta in there. Remember that the water should be already conditioned water. (follow the instructions in the bottle) (( do not rinse the gravel because it cleans good bacteria.))

Choosing a Betta

2009-12-20T15:06:00.001-08:00

A good place to get a betta is at your local pet shop (well obviously) I always got a halfmoon betta which looks like a half moon when it flares. But there are many other bettas, such as the crowntail and the deltatail. There are also "normal bettas" which are also very beautiful. Well it doesn't matter if their beautiful as long as their healthy and happy. Well if you want to get a betta, you should get it when the store has a new shipment. The betta shouldn't be tilted at a weird angle. You should watch the betta for a while and see if it is energetic. Obviously the betta won't be always swimming around as fast as they can, they're resting if they're not moving for a while. See if the color is vibrant. Put the betta next to an another betta and see if they flare when they see each other.

A another place to get a betta is to get them online. Make sure you go to a reliable and safe site to buy your betta, or they might not be healthy.

If you are a beginner don't get the super expensive ones because you might mess up and kill it. (no offense) start up with cheap but pretty ones like the halfmoon or the crowntail.

Betta Shopping List

2009-12-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is my betta Maggot.

Bettas are very easy to take care of and are pretty much cheap. Many people think that you can just take any random tiny bowl and keep a betta in there. Actually that is a stupid idea. How would you like to live in a bathtub filled with filthy water for days on end? I doubt that you'd enjoy it.

Maggot's tank is a 2.5 Minibow. It is a pretty good tank. It comes with a filter and a light (which i don't use). The minibow doesn't come with food, gravel, or decoration. I went over to petco and bought:

a thermoniter (Hikari)
a 5 pound bag of natural looking gravel
plant (midground style)decoration
a heater (important)
dried bloodworms (treats)
water conditioner