How Do I Keep My Betta Fish Alive? - 4 Tips to keep betta alive.
To keep your betta fish alive,
make sure to provide your betta fish with the right aquarium conditions such as
maintaining an aquarium temperature of 76 to 80°F.
Also, feed your betta fish once or twice a day and look out for common betta diseases.
Bettas are hardy fish,
however, an effort from the owner is necessary for them to stay alive.
While your betta fish does not require extensive care to stay alive,
there are several aspects of keeping this fish that you should know to keep them alive for long.
1.Setting up a Tank
When you first set up your betta’s tank,
you want to make sure that you have several essential items.
You will need a filter, heater, decorations, an appropriately sized tank, and a water conditioner.
If you have substrate, you need to rinse it thoroughly before adding it to the tank.
Otherwise, your beautiful new tank will have extremely cloudy water.
2.Cleaning the Filter and Tank
When cleaning your tank, you will need a gravel siphon.
If you have a bare bottom tank, airline tubing will do the trick,
though a gravel siphon may still be better.
Continue gravel siphoning until you have removed around 1/3 of the tank,
or until you have drained the amount of water you wanted to remove.
You need to clean the filter media once a month.
The filter media houses most of the bacteria that keep your nitrogen cycle going,
so you must be careful when cleaning.
For example, running tap water over the media will kill all the bacteria.
Simply take the media and squeeze it out several times into the bucket,
Empty the bucket, refill it with new water of the same temperature,
treat with water conditioner, then pour it back into the aquarium gently.
hemoglobin in the blood and prevents it from carrying oxygen, suffocating the fish.
3.Feeding Your Fish
Feeding more than this can result in bloat or constipation,
both of which are uncomfortable for your betta.
While overfeeding can cause these problems,
feeding the incorrect food will do the same thing.
Bettas are predators in the wild and primarily eat meat and animal protein.
Feeding them fruit, vegetable matter,
or other forms of protein can wreak havoc on their digestive tracts.
Be sure to feed your betta food made specifically for bettas.
Bloodworms and brine shrimp are some of the more popular and readily available choices.
4.Common Illnesses
Those three illnesses are most common illnesses that bettas get.
1.Columnaris
Columnaris is a bacterial infection that resembles a fungus.
It can kill fish in 24-72 hours,
meaning treatment must be carried out immediately if your fish is to survive.
The best treatment is either Kanaplex or Furan 2.
It is good to always have Kanaplex on hand, as it treats both columnaris and dropsy.
2.Dropsy
Dropsy is a symptom of kidney failure and causes extreme swelling in the body.
This swelling forces the scales outwards from the body,
giving a “pine coning” effect.
The death rates are astronomical and a mix of
Kanaplex and Epsom salt is the best way to treat it.
3.Fin rot
Fin rot is another very common issue with bettas,
though the cause is often environmental.
If your tank has any ammonia or nitrite, or the nitrate level is over 20ppm,
this can stress your fish and cause the fins to rot.
In conclusion
It is not difficult to keep a betta fish alive if you follow a few simple steps.
While their care may be different than you expected,
it's not complex, and they only require 20-40 minutes of intensive care weekly.
Bettas are very interactive and wonderful pets to have,
and they are more than worth the work.