betta fish are supposed to be this super easy pet but maybe you're having a little trouble
keeping them alive not to worry I've got five quick tips to help you keep your betta happy
and save you some heartache hi my name is Irene with girl talks fish here with practical tips
for busy fish keepers like you and when i was in middle school i probably had a similar setup
to what you have now i put my betta fish in a glass bowl and put some marbles on it and i
hated cleaning this thing like every time I'd have to basically pick it up
move about 10 pounds to the sink pour everything out wash it and then set it up again and i just
absolutely hated it so my tip number one is get an aquarium siphon this is the best tool
ever it's super cheap it's just a length of hose honestly i feel like every betta fish aquarium
kit should have one of these things because all you do is basically this end is used to vacuum
up the poop from the bowl the other end goes into a bucket which becomes full of dirty water which
you can dump out onto your plants and then you can fill up that bucket with clean water and pour it
into your aquarium to fill it up again you never have to pick up your fish tank ever again awesome
i have a whole video over here on how to use it it's super easy that's one of the reasons
why i like to use aquarium gravel instead of marbles in my tank because the poop for the
better fish tends to stay on top and it's just really easy to vacuum out versus marbles i find
that the waste often gets caught in between the gaps and then it doesn't look very pretty
bottom line i found out it's actually pretty important to keep the water clean for my betta
because if you think about it he's basically living in a soup of his own waste which is not
great for his health and it makes it more likely he's gonna get sick the dirtier the water is
however the larger the aquarium is for your betta fish the less frequently you have to do
water changes so for example Petco/PetSmart when they keep those little tiny cups for the bettas
they have to change the water kind of multiple times a day in order to keep it clean enough
that the better doesn't get sick now one of my first aquariums for a better fish was 3.5 gallons
and that one without any aquarium plants in it i basically had to clean it about once a week versus
a 5 gallon tank maybe i could go once every two weeks and then a 10 gallon tank if you didn't have
any other fish in it at all just the better maybe once a month so just something to think about
the second bed i ever kept was actually an office pet so for my first job i basically
didn't learn my lessons still had him in a small container with marbles on it
but i never had run into this problem before where bettas can die from being too cold so for
my first betta i lived in Texas with my parents and they didn't want to pay for a lot of AC so
the house was always pretty warm and bombing but in an office setting i mean that air conditioning
is just blowing on maximum all the time and it's not something that will kill you better right away
but kind of after several months of that he just couldn't tolerate anymore so same thing
as you as a human you know if you are kept in 50°F weather all the time with no extra clothes
you're basically going to be uncomfortable and shivering all the time and it's not going to kill
you out right but it is an additional stress on your body and it makes you more likely to get sick
so my tip number two is really easy just get a heater yes it is additional cost maybe it costs
about 25 dollars but it'll basically automate that temperature you never have to think about it after
you plug it in it will always keep it at that balmy 78 to 80°F that your betta fish needs to
enjoy because he's a tropical fish now as for what size of heater to get it kind of depends on how
big your aquarium is and how cold you keep your house and so i will put a link in the description
of a chart basically that will help you decide what size heater to get but for example for me i
live in Colorado it's kind of colder here i have a 5 gallon tank and i need a 50 watt heater not
a you know 15 to 25 watt heater like most pet stores recommend once i became a parent one of
my friends actually offered to get my son gamer boy a his first betta fish and i was like hmm
let me do a little research on what it actually takes to keep these critters alive and that's kind
of how i got down the deep rabbit hole of fish keeping and became more serious about it and so i
after doing some more research i tried to get the biggest betta fish aquarium kit i could find at
the pet store which is about 3.5 gallons and then i found out the default filter that came with it
an internal filter the spray coming out of it was just whipping my betta fish all around the
tank because he's got really big fins and he's not equipped to basically swim in fast current and if
given enough time where your fish is constantly struggling to basically stay in the same place
that can really stress out your fish and cause them to get sick and not live as long so tip
number three is to just make sure your betta fish has really gentle flow in his aquarium so
if you find out that the filter you got is just too strong i have a video over here on
various ways you can baffle that filter and that just means slow down the flow so that he's a lot
more comfortable and you can still keep that aquarium clean however nowadays i like to use a
sponge filter just because it's already really gentle um there's no way for his fins or tail to
get sucked into this sponge and it's really easy to clean so don't forget tip number one was keep
your water clean filters tend to collect a lot of fish waste so make sure you do regularly clean it
maybe like once a month the next story is actually about my nephew's betta fish so my mother-in-law
was petsitting for him and she could not get this thing to eat and so she would put a little pellet
directly in front of the betta and it would eat it and then spit it out immediately so tip number
four is maybe your betta fish pellet is too big for its mouth and you need to get something that's
a little smaller so i personally prefer betta fish pellets to flakes because i feel like flakes
they kind of dissolve in the water easily and they sink down to the ground and your betta fish when
they eat it they tend to make a big mess out of it versus the pellets if you get one small enough
they will swallow a whole and even if they don't find it right away they don't tend to dissolve in
the water that quickly plus they stay floating at the top which is where betta fish prefer to eat
now my favorite betta fish pellets to feed that i feel like are small enough are Hikari betta
bio gold as well as Xtreme betta pellets they are both about one millimeter in size which makes them
smaller for most bettas and none of mine have ever had any trouble with spitting them out or anything
however if you really want to go the extra mile i would consider feeding a wide variety of foods
such as freeze dried foods and frozen foods because just like a human could technically
survive on hamburgers all the time you really want to have a wide variety of foods so that you
make sure you get all the nutrients possible to live the best and most healthy life as possible
and that's what your bitter fish needs as well so you can check out this video over here for all the
different kinds of foods that you can feed your betta it's really fun now I'm going to talk about
a slightly more advanced tip so tip number five is to consider getting a plaquette betta or a betta
that has kind of shorter fins and a shorter tail now i know that seems counter-intuitive because
i just basically after years of experience of keeping those big beautiful thin long-finned and
long-tailed betta fish I've realized that i mean they just get ripped or bitten or caught on things
really easily and then that wound can easily turn into an infection if you're not careful this also
applies to maybe like the dumbo ear bettas they tend to if you look at them always have a rip
on those pectoral fins because they're just so big and heavy so in the past i had Darth Vader
and Soundwave both like to bite their tails and it would grow back and then they would decide
nope i need another haircut so that was a repeated pattern and then Sonic he was
originally in this community tank with the platies and he kept chasing them but he would chase them
so much that rips and tears would form in his fins so that's why he's kind of living in his
own bachelor tank right now but just something to consider now if you have followed all these tips
and your betta fish has reached the ripe old age of two, three, four years old... congratulations
but i do have one final bonus tip to give you which is you know if you've ever had an old cat
or dog you know kind of near the end of their life their fur starts getting kind of a little ratty
they sleep a lot they're not really as energetic maybe they have cloudy eyes from cataracts the
same thing can happen to your betta as well so my betta Soundwave near really the last six to almost
12 months of his life he just wasn't really active anymore his scales didn't really um they just kind
of looked patchy and not as pretty anymore not as shiny his fan fins looked a little ratty as well
ragged but it wasn't fin rot he was just getting old so it's just something to expect and you may
have to prepare a retirement for home for him if he was in a community tank like this with lots
of tank mates i would recommend putting him in a smaller tank with definitely gentle flow and then
that way he doesn't have to compete with anybody for food however if he does get to the point where
he can't feed himself euthanasia may be something you have to consider um so there's plenty of
articles online on how to do that but i just want to give you fair warning about that after years of
keeping bettas i can tell you it definitely gets easier and easier as time goes on kind of like
being a first-time dog owner versus having owned multiple dogs because you basically already have
all the equipment and food you know all the quirky behaviors they do and now you can spend kind
of more time relaxing at the end of the day and enjoying your betta fish instead of worrying about
it now if you really want to take your betta fish aquarium to the next level consider adding live
aquarium plants i know it seems tough but they're really beautiful they do help keep the water
cleaner for you and so i've got a whole tutorial over here on how to set up your first planted
aquarium for your betta fish take time to enjoy your aquariums and i'll see in the next video