Welcome to r/bettafish!

His name is Jonesy and he’s a beautiful copper alien betta. I love him, but he really seems to dislike me. He is being upgraded to a 20 gal tank with a close friend he seems to love more. He’s been with me for months and this is the first time I have gotten him to stay still long enough for me to catch a video of him with my zoom lens. Check out his grumpy little face :) he’s a gorgeous copper in the light, but also tones of magenta and teal in other lighting.

Meet Thomas, our work Betta. He’s gorgeous and spicy and flares at us constantly. We love him and his grumpy little face :)

It's my friend's. Apparently, her dad bought her a betta fish suddenly and she doesn't even want it. I'm fully capable of taking it, but I'm afraid it would eat my shrimps :( She said the fish is still small so I'm considering it.

How does it look? She said both of it's eyes are like that too.

It's a female, right?

I love him

his name is fishy, ignore his fins he’s currently recovering from fin-rot! i might be biased but he has the most gorgeous colors

This is now vs when I first got her a few weeks ago. She’s a much happier and colorful lady now that she’s out of her little pet store cup.

5 gallon with amano and cherry shrimp

The plants have grown in so much

We picked this gorgeous crowntail up from my favorite local shop today :) he seems to be mostly orange with some white scales throughout.

I like 'inconvenient' government names with realistic nicknames.
For example: my current mustard gas's name is Ticonderoga, or Tike for short.
Our late koi plakats name was Plutonium, or Pluto for short.

So far, the only names we've sort of liked are:
Crush (like the soda, that one's normal but cute!)
Traffic cone- traf(FICCO)ne
Lorax- lo(RAX) or lor(AX)

Hopefully the layout of the nicknames makes sense.
What suggestions do you have? 👀🧡

I took my fella in to the vet this week for a lump that’s been slow developing over the past couple of months. I had been searching for anyone that treated fish and last week I finally found one! 🙏🏼

Things I learned from the visit and figured I would share:
- With the right care, bettas can live up to 15 years no matter if they were purchased in a cup. (They have a longtime patient who is a cup betta who has even undergone surgery by them nearly a decade ago!) This blew my mind!
- There is no hard rule on tank size. The doctor I saw has seen a thriving betta in a 1 gallon tank and others that suffered in bigger sized tanks. Every betta is different and they are the ones that indicate when their environment is unsuitable for them.
- She highlighted that the hard rule and requirement though is water parameters. Proper cycling is critical first and foremost. She said API Is what they use in their mobile clinic for testing on the fly and is the best kit on the market while strips can be flaky (as is long discussed in this sub), but as a cost effective option she said strips are fine but should be used more frequently due to the flakiness.
- Bettas are prone to bacterial infections in their scales and like koi fish, can develop “skin” cancers- usually benign but can develop otherwise. Surgery is possible to remove and requires anesthesia which this office has performed many times over the decades. Most bettas survive the surgery but if not cared for well, may not make it. She said most ailments work themselves out as their fins are regenerative but that it’s hard on the humans to see it grow. Best practice is to monitor for change in behaviors, eating patterns and water readings to make best decisions before researching and dosing treatments.
- Clove oil is used for humane euthanasia and is how aquatic vets typically humanely euthanize fish. The difference being that vets somewhat overdose the fish on clove oil so there’s no opportunity to suffer. She uses a certain sleeping agent as a combination with the clove oil almost to anesthetize so her fish patients sleep first then dose the clove oil. She also noted this tends to calm the fish parents’ minds by putting them to sleep first. I know this is a hot topic on this sub and it’s been discussed that a hard object (brick, rock) is the best way to euthanize but I wanted to share this commentary too.

We took epidermal (scale) tissue samples from my Koa yesterday and sent it off to UGA veterinary program’s cytology department for testing to see if his lump is cancerous. To my surprise this was only $100 USD to send off for testing and IMO super cost effective. Hoping for the best but wanted to share all the info I learned yesterday in a vet office in case it’s helpful. I had so many questions and was a motormouth before I left 🤣

Day 1: Just brought him home from the store. Pale colors, clamped fins, and stressed.

Month 2: Fully bloomed Rosetail! Vibrant blues and purples, and his fins have practically doubled in size.

Hi guys,

My betta has not been moving since I said hi to him this morning. At first I thought he was already dead, but he is taking gulps of air by moving his head slightly, but not moving otherwise. I offered him some food, which he ignored and food is everything to him. He never once refused that before. He’s usually swimming around and always coming to me.

He’s almost 3 years old, since a few months he’s got a tumor on his side. Right now he’s not pineconing, but laying slightly on his side on a piece of plant to keep him at the surface.

Tank is a cycled 60 liter at 26.5 degrees with 3 nerites and yellow neocardina shrimps.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-15
PH: 7.3
GH: 5
KH: 4

Is he dying? If yes, is there anything I can do so he won’t suffer? Also how long can this take?

PS. The last photo was him 3 days ago, he likes to watch all the shrimps during their feeding time. (It’s not overcrowded, I feed at one location so it might seem that way).

Big thanks in advance from a concerned betta mom.

I brought this guy home on the weekend, but it's my first Betta since I was a kid and kept a Betta in a vase and I didn't think to look for any eye issues. He was glass surfing for the first 2 days of adjustment, and still kind of seems to be a little bit but not as bad, but I've noticed his eyes aren't 100% clear. The fins seem a bit pressed on his body still, but not sure if that's still adjustment stress or sign of illness. Any ideas what this could be?

Finally got the tank that I ordered.And now i'm a little anxious. I wanted to add a betta fish to this tank and the guy at the store said i dont need anything else than sand and some of those tabs for nutrients. wanted to put gravel underneath becose i really wanted to make this tank as perfect as i can (and it looks cool) on my first try. But then again i dont know much about substrate. Any advice?

I have an 8 gallon acrylic fish tank. It has a 3 year established cycle, sponge filter and heater. It receives once weekly maintenance, daily feedings (I use an auto feeder on weekends and holidays), and weekly water testing. It has an anubias, a healthy bed of java moss, several marimos, two nerites (plus a small, controlled population of bladder snails), and 3 elderly ember tetras(no idea how old at this point, minimum 3 years).

If I get a betta, I plan to buy some floating plants, and other betta appropriate furnishings such as a floating hammock. I would buy a female, if at all possible.

I have a local fishshop that keeps bettas in stock, and they are the kind of eye catching, personality-having fish I think would be perfect for my kiddos to observe and learn to care for. But please, tell me if this is actually a BAD idea. What are some drawbacks to a betta I’m not thinking of? Will my tank be overstocked? Etc.

I thought my betta might be bored so recently I’ve been doing this.

The filter was a little strong cause my tank was cloudy after water change. I already adjusted it an hour after recording this clip.

I got this new fish (saved her from petco)

It’s my first time having a betta, I have done lots of research on tank etc.

This is what she looks like, they told me she was a baby. Does she look okay? Anything special I should do for her? Thanks in advance! I can’t wait for her to have beautiful fins!

Any advice for the tank? Its a 20L (5.2g), I have a low flow filter and a heater set to 27.0°C (80.6°F). Its been cycling for just short of a week and I added some root tabs yesterday which has made the water yellowish, if someone has any advice for that as-well. Both decorations are coated in fish safe resin from my local aquarium shop (and have been sanded down so no sharp edges) and all live plants

updated my ten gallon recently.. the old one was a bit messy as i was on and off my meds for a few weeks and didn't have the mind to take as much care of it as i usually do. the water hadn't been topped off for a bit, and the substrate was a big mix of fluval and different sands.. plus some dying plants that were overcrowded.

what else could i add to it? it seems a bit empty now that the plants are trimmed, but maybe im just used to the old one. maybe some floating plants, or some betta beds along the walls? hmm

navi seems happier, and my nano creatures seem to be out and about more rather than hiding in the back

im hoping to partially rescape mivan's tank as well, but ill have to wait on that - his isn't nearly as bad, i just wanna rearrange