New Member & Betta Here!

[little_mermaid]

Hi ya'll I'm Brittany and I've had Betta fish for pretty much my whole life. My newest *college* edition is Little Loretta Lynn: my first female Betta! I've had her for a little less than a week and I absolutely ADORE her! Lately it's been kind of rough for me, so I call her my little pick-me-up!

When I first got her I bought her a medium-sized glass bowl, but after learning about the benefits of a 2.0+ tank + having a filter, I switched her over as of today. Except she's now in a 3.0 gallon tank! She acts like she doesn't know what to do with all the room! I laughed when she got caught in the outflow of the water from the wheel; she just glided on down!

Anyways, I do have a few questions at the moment:

- Why does she go to the top of the bowl and blow bubbles? My little sister has a male betta back home that blows smaller bubbles, but they're usually in clusters or a nest. My female's bubbles are bigger and more spread out.

- Can female bettas live together? If so, how many can you have in the tank (in my tank in this case)?

- What other types of fish/creatures can female bettas get along with? I am thinking my little girl would like a friend. Also, the tank just seems kind of bare; I also need to add more plants.

- And it seems like Loretta can barely eat the pellet food; she looks like she can't swallow them well. She'll take one in, then spit it out, then go after it again. And when she does consume it, it takes her awhile to do so. Is she okay eating this food or should I get her something different? I have been giving her bloodworms, but obviously the purpose of those is used as a treat.

- One more question came to mind: My new tank has a light; how long should it be on for? Should I turn it off at night?

 

[LauraFrog]

- She blows bubbles because she is an anabantid or labyrinth fish. She has an organ that lets her absorb oxygen from the air. Bettas do this even when the water is perfect and full of oxygen, and they will actually die if they are prevented from breathing air - so you can drown a fish. Bettas with their labyrinth removed (before there were laws made to suggest that hacking bits off animals to see if they lived was cruel) died even if in oxygen saturated water.
She will take a mouthful of air, swallow it, exhaust the oxygen in it then spit it out and take another one. The bubbles are covered in betta spit and so may last for some time.

- Yes, females can live together. However there are a few things you have to be careful of. Keeping females together if you have less than four or five is not recommended, as you often get tank bully or tank runt situations - one fish terrorising the others and without enough others to spread out the aggression so the others don't get hurt. Or all of the fish ganging up on one female. Unless they have plenty of space to sort out their heirarchy, and enough females to spread the aggression round - 4 is the recommended minimum with 8 or 10 being preferred. Obviously you could only comfortably fit two or three females in a three gallon tank. If the tank is heavily decorated with lots of hiding places you could consider adding three more females ONLY if it is very heavily filtered. If you do this you will need to do a lot of water changes and you will also have to be prepared to move or rehome some of the females if there is a lot of aggression. Personally I would not recommend keeping multiple females in tanks less than 5 gallons. If you have a community tank you can put several females in that. You also need to watch for plakat males that are sold as females. If you buy a pk male as a female he may kill your females - I'm sure you realise you can't keep males and females together.

- Female bettas are peaceful. In a three gallon tank you could have one or two african dwarf frogs, shrimp, four ember tetras or some snails.

- Try crushing the pellets for small bettas. Dont' turn them into dust, she won't eat that. Just use the bigger pieces you get when you crush them a bit. The back of a spoon on a hard surface works well. Too many bloodworms are not good for her digestion, but they are great as a treat once a week or so, or to use if you decide to condition her to spawn.

- The tank light should be on for 12 - 18 hours a day, preferably the smaller end of this spectrum. I turn the lights on when I get up in the morning and I turn them out when I go to bed. That's usually about 16 hours on time. You can turn them out at sunset, but I prefer to leave them on because the tank looks so pretty at night. Don't leave them on around the clock, this is very stressful for fish. Also do not make sudden changes from 'day' to 'night' as this can panic fish. If the room is light enough to see in when you get up it is fine to turn the lights on then. If it is pitch black at night, turn the tank lights off, leave the room lights on for half an hour or so and then turn the room lights off. If you have live plants there is no point leaving the lights on for them. They will only photosynthesise for about 12 hours a day, so leaving the lights on all night does not help them at all.

 

[ReMz]

Welcome to the forums. Good to hear that she has a good home.

^^ everything LauraFrog said is spot on. Just a couple additions:

Bettas blow bubbles because of their labyrinth. What you are refering to with your sister's betta is a bubblenest that males blow when they are happy (or horny lol). When they breed, the bubblenest is used to house the eggs.

I would not keep any other females in a 3gallon tank. 5 gallons would be the minimum IMO. However, the tank mates suggested would work just fine. A couple of Otos (Otocinclus Catfish) are also very good options as they are fast (wont get beat up) and cannot nip fins. All they need is the occasional algae wafer and some zucchini as a treat.

Sometimes new bettas will pull the "eat the pellet, spit it out" maneuver for a few days until they settle or get used to the food. They may have been fed pretty low quality food at the store, so give her time to adjust. If you feel the food is too large, crush it as Laura said. Hikari Betta Bio-Gold is a very good high quality food that I recommend, as well as other people on these forums. It doesn't sink or foul up the water, and all the bettas i've kept love it.

Make sure you turn the lights off at night. Not doing so causes a lot of unnecessary stress. They need to sleep just like us

Good luck

edit: if you don't already know, 3-4 pellets twice a day is a pretty good feeding pattern. Obviously adjust accordingly to the size of the betta and if you notice bloating.

 

[little_mermaid]

- She blows bubbles because she is an anabantid or labyrinth fish. She has an organ that lets her absorb oxygen from the air. Bettas do this even when the water is perfect and full of oxygen, and they will actually die if they are prevented from breathing air - so you can drown a fish. Bettas with their labyrinth removed (before there were laws made to suggest that hacking bits off animals to see if they lived was cruel) died even if in oxygen saturated water.
She will take a mouthful of air, swallow it, exhaust the oxygen in it then spit it out and take another one. The bubbles are covered in betta spit and so may last for some time.

- Yes, females can live together. However there are a few things you have to be careful of. Keeping females together if you have less than four or five is not recommended, as you often get tank bully or tank runt situations - one fish terrorising the others and without enough others to spread out the aggression so the others don't get hurt. Or all of the fish ganging up on one female. Unless they have plenty of space to sort out their heirarchy, and enough females to spread the aggression round - 4 is the recommended minimum with 8 or 10 being preferred. Obviously you could only comfortably fit two or three females in a three gallon tank. If the tank is heavily decorated with lots of hiding places you could consider adding three more females ONLY if it is very heavily filtered. If you do this you will need to do a lot of water changes and you will also have to be prepared to move or rehome some of the females if there is a lot of aggression. Personally I would not recommend keeping multiple females in tanks less than 5 gallons. If you have a community tank you can put several females in that. You also need to watch for plakat males that are sold as females. If you buy a pk male as a female he may kill your females - I'm sure you realise you can't keep males and females together.

- Female bettas are peaceful. In a three gallon tank you could have one or two african dwarf frogs, shrimp, four ember tetras or some snails.

- Try crushing the pellets for small bettas. Dont' turn them into dust, she won't eat that. Just use the bigger pieces you get when you crush them a bit. The back of a spoon on a hard surface works well. Too many bloodworms are not good for her digestion, but they are great as a treat once a week or so, or to use if you decide to condition her to spawn.

- The tank light should be on for 12 - 18 hours a day, preferably the smaller end of this spectrum. I turn the lights on when I get up in the morning and I turn them out when I go to bed. That's usually about 16 hours on time. You can turn them out at sunset, but I prefer to leave them on because the tank looks so pretty at night. Don't leave them on around the clock, this is very stressful for fish. Also do not make sudden changes from 'day' to 'night' as this can panic fish. If the room is light enough to see in when you get up it is fine to turn the lights on then. If it is pitch black at night, turn the tank lights off, leave the room lights on for half an hour or so and then turn the room lights off. If you have live plants there is no point leaving the lights on for them. They will only photosynthesise for about 12 hours a day, so leaving the lights on all night does not help them at all.

WOW thank you so much for taking the time to type all of that out! I greatly appreciate it! There is this chart on the web that lists different types of fish that can get along with bettas as well as ones that don't get along with them. Here is the link to the website:

[URL="http/www.ratemyfishtank.com/freshwater_c...ility_chart.php"]http/www.ratemyfishtank.com/freshwater_c...ility_chart.php[/URL]

What do you think? 'Cause I was thinking about getting a couple of the following:

Dwarf Gourami
Loaches/Botia
Molly
Platies/Variatus
Plecostomus
Rainbowfish
Rasbora
Tetra

Though what is the maximum number of fish I can have in my tank?

 

[ReMz]

gourami. No
loaches. No
molly. Maybe
Platies. Maybe
Pleco. BIG NO
rainbowfish. No
Rasbora. Maybe??? i'm not sure on this one.
tetra. Usually no. but maybe depending on the type

You cannot keep many fish in a tank that size though. you are really limited to 1 or 2 tank mates. Stick with the ones that LauraFrog and I told you

 

[little_mermaid]

gourami. No
loaches. No
molly. Maybe
Platies. Maybe
Pleco. BIG NO
rainbowfish. No
Rasbora. Maybe??? i'm not sure on this one.
tetra. Usually no. but maybe depending on the type

You cannot keep many fish in a tank that size though. you are really limited to 1 or 2 tank mates. Stick with the ones that LauraFrog and I told you

Oiy this is hard...some folks say 3 betta females is fine I might try a Molly though...but if 3 female bettas could get along that would be just great
They're so pretty and I would like to add more swimming color to my tank! So I just don't really know what to do, 'cause obviously I don't want Loretta to get hurt!

 

[ibbledibble]

certain varieties of loach and plecostomus can be kept with bettas, but are not really suitable for your tank (i have khuli loaches and a bristlenose plec with my girls, but they are in a 40gal tank with lots of plants)

rasboras, the harlequin variety are generally fine with bettas, but again not suitable for your tank, as they should be kept in groups of 6 minimum to give them security and they need adequate swimming space.

tetras, most varieties can be nippy, and again should be kept in groups of 6 or more and need adequate space to swim.

mollies and platies have worked for some people, but you would only really be able to have 1 or maybe 2 in that size tank with your female.

basically as has been said before, you are very limited by the size of your tank, and i would not add anything other than a couple of cory cats, OR ottos, OR ADF's, OR cherry shrimp, OR snails

 

[chesterscot]

to tff hope you and your betta are well
regards scot

 

[blaxicanlatino]

females also will begin to create a bubblenest during the mating process to assisst the male but this isnt the most common behavior seen. It mean like everyone else had already said, means that they are aroused for mating I read from different articles that making a bubble nest also may signify being happy or in a good mood. Every betta has its own personality and acts differnelty, I had one that would make a popping sound when i came to the tank.

 

[little_mermaid]

Well it's nice meeting ya'll...and again, thanks for the advice.

If anything, I would like to purchase one Molly as a tank buddy possibly. It's hard to decide what to get when you have read so many different opinions! *sighs*

 

[SharonCC]

Actually, I wouldn't even add a Molly...another differing opinion...

 

[little_mermaid]

Okay okay...so can any type of Cory Cat go with my Betta? I don't know if I want any frogs or snails 'cause I read in the FAQ that they are really dirty and I definitely don't want that!

 

[tibby25731]

Whatever you get, be prepared for your betta to hate it - not all bettas will tolerate a tankmate, not even a snail! So make sure the shop you buy from will take the fish/frog/snail back if thigs don't work out. Only one of my 5 bettas has the right temperament for tankmates

 

[blaxicanlatino]

bettas just arent that tolerant of "others" especially those with long fins. My betta didnt mind corys and sometimes randomly harrassed the platys. Have you tried ghost shrimp?

 

[lilfishie]

i wouldn't add a molly or cory as in my opinion the tank is too small, some mollys get to 6"