buying betta in adelaide

[dwpkr]

hey all,

am looking to purchase my first betta in the next few days, just wondering if anyone can recommend somewhere to buy them and what to look for? i don't live far from seaview aquariums on anzac highway, and i've heard good things, but is there anywhere else people can recommend? what makes the seaview display so good? from memory all they had was betta's in jars at the counter...

obviously i want a really healthy, vibrant looking betta but i'm not sure exactly how i identify this. just look for one that seems lively and seems to respond to my presence? there's another place on sheperds hill road and i've been told the betta there look good too, any thoughts on this place?

basically i want to support a store that looks after the bettas well, and then select the best one available.

thanks for the help :alright:

[RarePets]

Yeah the biggest thing that sets Seaview Aquariums apart from many aquarium specialists in SA is that they give each Betta it's own still water, the pickle jars that they use are rotated so they can keep both jar and water clean easily. Many shops use things like aqua one barracks and have flowing water, this is not part of the natural environment that Bettas evolved in. As normally flowing water is during the daily rain in the tropics very rarely all day every day for weeks at a time.

The flowing water idea comes from lazy people that forget that most of the time Bettas breath at the surface so saying they are giving filtered water shows a lack of understanding of the speicies. The most they need is some small plants to use the nutrients, although weekly water changes would be sufficient.

There are other shops that also give still water from pets paradise stores, a shop at Port Noarlunga there would also be others.

Basically the supply of Bettas in SA comes from a few local wholesalers, some have import licences and obtain stock from Singapore and Malaysia. Most of Adelaide's fish comes from Melbourne and Brisbane wholesalers.

I have the hard to find HalfMoon Bettas breeding all year in the Southern area, They will cost a little more than the basic retail price of the common fin types that you will see around Adelaide. I can give you as much info as you need on the keeping or breediing of them. Fridays and weekends are best times for visiting.

[Chuckie]

The flowing water idea comes from lazy people that forget that most of the time Bettas breath at the surface so saying they are giving filtered water shows a lack of understanding of the speicies.

This is a pretty dogmatic statement Robert. Do you mean aerated water? Aerated water (and filtered water) doesn't prevent a betta breathing at the surface.

All fish need ammonia removed from their water, regardless of what their natural habitat is. A hobbyist who chooses to use a sponge filter (eg me) rather than constantly traumatising their fish with huge water changes is not "lazy". Keeping a fish in pickle jar is hardly representative of native habitat either.

Having said that, it's nice that you think highly of your LFS, there is not enough of that!

[RarePets]

No, not a problem with air filters I use the hagen version of smallworld filters in all of my spawning and grow out tanks. There is also a number of a different brand of sponge filter in use. These type of filter effectively replicate the amount of water movement that a windy day creates on still water.

The ones I have a great discord for around here are using the sort of water flow that you would use for river fish. Anglefish etc.

I find that Java Moss and duck weed work well at using all of the fish waste nutrients.

As far as water changes, I use the 425ml plastic cups to float the fish each time they recieve fresh water, basically some of the old water is poured into the cups the fish is added then after cleaning and refilling the container the fish is floated for anything from 5 minutes to hours if I get called away while working. I test KH and GH in addition to PH on all water that we use. I have nitrate, nitrite and ammonia test kits I fail to get a readings on all of my aquariums, including the Bristlenose breeding tanks.

Basically we work on a system of no unexplained deaths in our fish keeping.

With Seaview's pickle jars, like I said they rotate stock to enable cleaning of the jars. The neck of the jar is large enough for anybody to place their hand in for effective and fast cleaning. The only thing with curved containers is the magnification value. Yet after you see it a few times your eye will compensate for the distortion.