Daniel031~A new member with loads of questions.

[daniel031]

Hello everyone,

My name is Daniel, I live in Brisbane and hoping to get into Bettas as soon as I know what I am doing. I have many questions that I would love for you all to help me with. I am going to start out with one Betta and then go from there. I would love to know:

* When I go to buy the fish, is there a specific breed or rarer colour that I should look out for if I am one day going to breed or show it.

Wow, all my other questions have left me. I will be sure to post them later when I remember but untill then I would love your input. All the information and tips you send me will be well appreciated.

Thanks, Dan.

[Bettarazzi]

Welcome to the forum Daniel. You should choose whichever colour you're attracted to. Having said that however, I don't believe that there are very many people working on yellow.

[Alasse]

Hiya daniel.

Being in Brissie, if you are after top quality Betta look up LFS in Annerley, someone imports absolute stunners!

[Sarah]

Ahhh.. lost my comment hate that!

Anyway,

Welcome Daniel!

I hope you enjoy AusAqua & your fishies!

I agree to what 'Razzi said - pick whatever colour you like. You should be breeding for your own enjoyment and what you love, instead of a colour you kinda like/dislike because it is uncommon, and just for the sake of it.

I'm sure something beautiful will catch your eye. Albinos are rare though. $2000 per fish. Never mind. :alright:

Oh yes, you MUST look at someone's fish - HERE! :drool:

[daniel031]

Wow, Thank you all for the replys. I will definatly look this lady up.

I will set my tank up and in a week or 2 will start looking for the fish so that the tank has time to do its thing....unless that is inncorrect, then by all means correct me.

When I find the perfect Betta, I will post a picture for you all.

Thanks again,

Dan

[paul]

Welcome aboard.

To answer some of the questions you haven't asked yet...

Yes it is impossible to own only one Betta. They are extremely addictive and need to be sold with consumer warnings.

This can become a very expensive and time consuming hobby.

Trawl through the "library" in one of the subforums it is extremely helpful.

You will probably spend many, many hours infront of your tanks, or online looking at more Bettas.

Yes people on here really are THAT nice.

You will be asked to post pictures of your fish at some stage.

Despite the time and effort and expense, we all really love this hobby - and I'm guessing you will too.

To answer your one asked question:

Most people will show Half Moons (long fin which seem to fetch the highest prices), Half Moon Plakads (short fins), and crowntails. But as already stated... it's all about what you like.

Enjoy

[daniel031]

Hahaha, Thanks for all the answers to my unspoken questions X P.

I had a good laugh. ....BTW I am already spending ages looking at Betta's on the net already.

[briztoon]

G'day Dan,

You don't need to look far. As has already been mentioned, there really is only one place to shop for Bettas, LFS. Here is the YouTube link to the latest fish for sale, http://www.youtube.com/user/Fishchick65#g/u.

[Fletch]

Welcome fellow Queenslander (go the blues in state of origin ), Fishchicks is a great place to start. You could always look in Fishy Showroom and see who is breeding what in you local area and get some of there babies. There are a few of us breeding some nice fish in Brissie. If you see something you like, get in touch with them and I am sure they will help you out. Bit cheaper too.

Anyway, welcome and enjoy. Ask away with questions, always someone with a good idea or advice.

Edited December 29, 2010 by Busman

[shadoh]

Good to see another Brissie member! Welcome! You'll find plenty of advice here as well as answers to almost any question you can think of. Have you discovered a particular type/colour of betta you like while looking on the net?

[daniel031]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the posts.

@ shadoh: I Really like the king crowns, Long flowing fins and so on.

I have actually been working at a pet store that sell Betta's, they are amazing. When I go in of a morning I feed them and think to myself *OMG, I love that one, an dthat one and that one.* We only sell vailtails and crowntails but the colours are amazing. We recently had 1 Full orange and 1 full white, both crowntails. But from looking on the web, I really love the purples... but there are many that catch my eye.

Does anyone have some tips on how to make there betta's happy and make them live longer?

I am going to get a +3L tank, heater for winter, hidey spots/ plants. At the pet store we feed them freeze dried worms I beleive, are they any good? what are some foods that you recommend?

[Fletch]

I am always on the look out for nice crown tails. Let me know if you get some nice ones please.

Biggest tip in 3ltr tank, water changes twice a week.

[daniel031]

@Busman: I will definatly have a look out for you. I am however on my 2 week notice as the cleaner for the doggie and cat pens in making me ill (I can just imagine what it is doing to the poor animals!).

I was also planning on getting a really good filter, should cut down on the cleaning (and the stress to the fish because I will not have to clean as much.)?

What is a good filter brand? I have been reading that the sponge filters are good....are they ok to use in the spawn tanks? (or will it sick the little fishies up?)

Thanks for your help X D

[Sarah]

I find sponge filters are great, they don't suck up the fry, although they are usually off for the first couple weeks (or running elsewhere so it is cycled and ready).

As for food, live is the very best.. and variety is the important. I feed live bloodworms, mozzie larvae, starting the Brine Shrimp, etc, etc. I also use frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp that Bettas seem to love. I do use flakes and dry foods too. My favourite Betta flakes have freeze-dried bloodworms and other goodies in it. The freeze-dried worms will be good, but try not to use it as the only feed.

Oh, and once a week (i.e. Monday) I fast my Bettas, and feed them a cooked pea the next day. It helps clean out their digestive track.

To feed the pea (I use the frozen ones), defrost it in a cup of hot water, and prick it with a toothpick. Then, squeeze it to pop it out of the shell. Discard the shell. Break the pea into small pieces, and place on the end of the toothpick (cut the sharp bit off). Wriggle it around in your Bettas tank and this helps him/her think it is live. Most Bettas don't eat it at first, but be persistent - once they figure out it is food, they gobble it down every time. :)

[daniel031]

Awesome, That is a great tip!

Thanks Sarah

[daniel031]

I am having alot of trouble keeping up with the abbreviations that are used on the forums..... I know that HM's are and CT's but besides that I am stumped.

Do we have a thread or site I can look at?

Also I would love to be able to identify the variations in betta's like dragons, type and so on. Is there help out there? and if so I would love some guidence.

Thanks

[shadoh]

Here you go Dan!

http://ausaqua.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1052

[Chuckie]

Does anyone have some tips on how to make there betta's happy and make them live longer?

Unless you are conditioning a fish to breed it, feed only once every 2nd day with a SMALL amount of food (yes, skip a day, seriously). Remember that a betta's eye is only as big as his stomach, so only feed him that much.

Avoid live blackworms. Too many bettas fed live blackworms develop dropsy shortly afterwards for it to be a coincidence. Freeze-dried blackworms, on the other hand, are awesome. You can feed these exclusively and your fish will be fine (IME). You can also feed mosquito wrigglers. If you collect more than 1 serve, you can keep the extras in the fridge until next feed.

Do use a sponge filter. Where bettas are concerned, a simple, cheap sponge filter is "a really good filter". No, they won't suck the baby fish into it, as it's a solid sponge. Get a bubble valve and turn the bubble rate down to 1 bubble per second if you're worried, but you needn't be.

Keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels.

Use Indian Almond Leaf as a water conditioner.

:)

[daniel031]

Thanks, lol This will seem very, VERY noobie.... But just remember I am 16 XP.

The water for the tank: I know I should use A water ager.

But what about the conditioner, should I use rain water and what about the "hardness" of the water?

I just want to make sure I start out right X D.

lol Thanks again from the noobie.

[daniel031]

Happy New Year everyone!

I was wondering if the people on this forum test the water hardness.

And Is rain water better for the Betta than tap water (lol, I had to say it like that)

Thanks guys, Have a great day

[fishish]

Hiya daniel, welcome to the forum

I've never tested for hardness myself but I'm not sure if location would alter that necessity. My LFS have done it twice for me when I set up my first tank, all was well and I've never done it again. I'm not much of a hardness expert but it doesn't seem hardness causes many issues, read something on here about high hardness increasing the tendency of pH to fluctuate or something like that, thats all I'm aware of. Perhaps just if you wind up having issues with fluctuating parameters you could start getting that fussy about hardness?

I don't use rain water myself but instead age water for at least 24 hours with water conditioner and have IAL in all my tanks. Location may effect this necessity, don't know about Brissy. I think people use rain water due to higher chlorine, chromamine and heavy metals in tap water. If you de-chlorinate then pH can fluctuate a lot so you need to age water to settle it down. Rain water doesn't need to be de-chlorinated or aged.

Might I suggest you try using the search bar on this forum cos questions like this have been answered. if you can't find what you need then possibly start a thread with questions as people might not look in the intro forum for unanswered questions

Cheers :)

Edited January 1, 2011 by fishish

[daniel031]

Thank you, I tried searching but for some reason it goes funky and doesnt produce what I ask...

Sorry for all the noobie questions. I just didnt want to start out doing something horrid.

[fishish]

You may not get an exact hit but you should be able to extract an answer, perhaps out of more than one thread that comes up as having matches to your key words :)

[volvodriver]

In some areas rain water is recommended (I believe Sydney is particularly bad for fluctuations in tap water) but Brisbane doesn't seem to have many problems. It was advised to me when I first started out to stick to one water source and the most reliable of which is tap water unless you have a tank. Also as far as I'm aware rainwater is very soft which means other perametres need to be monitored more heavily, where Brisbane water isn't particularly hard but it's just enough to help stop excessive fluctuations.

[Sarah]

Judging from the spawn logs, Brisbane has fry power-growing water. You lot should bottle it up and sell it to Sydneyers! :P