Betta Fish...how to Take Care of It

This might help. http://www.bettafish.com/

I bought my boys a betta (yes, betta is how you spell it) and he lived a very long, long 6 years. He was the Methuseleh of bettas. :-)

I didn't do much. He lived in a big fishbowl with no filter. I ran tap water into a pitcher and let it sit out, uncovered, for 2 days and used that for his bowl. I never used a conditioner.

I fed him the little betta pellets because the flakes were difficult. I wanted to feed him enough. 3 or so pellets a day and he was happy.

I usually kept a open jug of tap water stored on top of the fridge to top off his water as needed. Especially when the cats decided they liked fish flavored water. And another full, open jug for complete cleanouts. I just gently snagged him out of his bowl and put him in a cup of the clan water.

They're pretty simple little things.

first off, thank you for spelling the name of your fish correctly. it's wildly common to both spell and pronounce it as 'beta.'
it's so tempting to overfeed fish. they act like they're starving, and bettas are SO personable, it really feels as if it knows and likes you and is begging pitifully!
but resist the temptation. 2 flakes per day is plenty. and more will make the bowl cloudy.
you're right to let the water rest, both for temperature and to let unwanted chemicals evaporate out. one thing you might try is buying distilled water so you bypass the chlorine and other issues that fish have with treated tap water.
it sounds like you're doing everything right. sometimes it's just unfathomable. i kept aquaria for years, but for some reason i just can't keep a clear tank here, with our delicious but rock-hard well water, and finally gave up.
you may need to bite the bullet and get your betta a small aquarium with a little filter. most bettas don't need it, but it might help in your situation.
and resist the urge to overfeed him!
khairete
S.

Betta fish have the ability to survive in poor conditions, but surviving and thriving are not the same thing.

Pet stores are notorious for giving people bad info on betta care. The little kit you bought is not a good choice for a long and healthy life. I suggest a 2 gallon tank with gentle filtration and aeration. Bettas will eat flake food, but that is not the best nutritional option. Flakes also contaminate the water more quickly than pellet food.

This site has great info, read everything.
http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_care.htm

I feed mine a small pinch of food daily, and I don't use any water conditioners when I change the water. My water is clear and I have not changed it in almost a month. If you over feed you will have to change the water more frequently though.

We had a beta that lived for 5 years (which is a LONG lime for a fish...)

If the water is super cloudy, I would reccomend feeding slightly less. The more it eats, the more it poops... As long as it seems active and healthy, I wouldn't worry about under-feeding it. I do think one flake isn't enough though... I always did a little pinch every day, and once a week fed fresh bloodworms. (You can buy at pet stores, and they keep in the fridge. Very nutritious and helps them keep a vivid color.) We changed the water every month or two, depending on the cleanliness, and would condition it (per directions on the bottle...) and let it sit for a day or two before actually changing it. Depending on your water, you may not have to treat it- we just had really crappy city water that had to be balanced to avoid shocking the fish. I do recommend allowing he water to rest at least 24 hours before changing, to allow it to come to room temperature aNd balance out a bit. You might also consider the size of the bowl- ours was a 1/2 gallon, so for a single beta it would take quite a bit to pollute.

Our beta was still very healthy when he died too- unfortunately, the shelf he lived on fell and his bowl broke... He cut his side open on a shard of the bowl and didn't survive. :(

Mine lived for 4 years. I just made sure it was fed daily -- I gave it 2-3 flakes. Sometimes 4 by accident. I also washed the tank once a week, no special cleaning agent needed. I would scoop out the fish with a plastic cup and kept it in there until I was done washing the tank and added clean water.

My guess is that the food is clouding the water by itself or the fish is producing more waste from over feeding. Ammonia build up can be a problem in any fish tank. You also may have a different mineral content in the water in your town. The conditioner you are adding may discolor it too, or react with the food.

Your pet store should provide free water testing if you have a question. Go with the experience of the people in the store (and I'd say to go to a small pet shop owned by real pet people instead of the mega-stores staffed with high school kids!) and don't follow what's on the directions of the product all the time. Kind of like shampoo instructions to "lather/rinse/repeat" or toothpaste ads showing a whole long stripe of toothpaste which are just designed to get you to use more product, the fish supplies can tell you to use too much. We found that with our fresh water tank for community fish - we used much more stuff in the beginning because it was a big seller for the store. Don't use Google. Use the people who want your repeat business.

The fish is going to eat whatever you put in there. In nature, it would be competing with other fish, but in your house he's the only one! They don't stop when they're "full" - they aren't that sophisticated or disciplined! They eat if it's there.

One other thing with betta fish is that they jump. Don't fill the container too high up unless it's covered. We found our fish dead on the carpet because no one told us this!

Remember that every time you remove the fish and push it in another container, you cause it to have stress. If you're putting him in one kind of water with a certain amount of conditioner (or none) and then putting him back in water with chemicals, you stress him out again. He's not going to live long if he's not stable.

I don't understand why the small tank has to sit all day for the water to reach the same temperature as the little container. Room temp is room temp. It doesn't take that long to equalize. If you aren't sure, use an aquarium thermometer. But while you're sitting there waiting all day, the fish is in a different container than what is supposed to be his habitat. His fish poop is contaminating that while you wait for water to come to room temp. I don't know any fish store that recommends that, so verify it with the place where you bought the fish or another place that you plan to use going forward.

We had a beta and our kit included a pump with a f.ilter. I don't remember ever completely changIng the water. the tank was perhaps 10-12 inches square with the depth a bit taller.. I used a liquid that dechlorinated the water. Perhaps that is what your conditioner is. I added just a few drops.
I put about an inch layer of aquarium sand on the bottom.

I know I never took the fish out. I don't remember how often, I removed half the water and replaced it with treated water. I think i did this when the water started to look cloudy. I don't think it was any more often than once a month. Of course i had a pump filterijg the water. I used warm water from the tap. No need to let it sit for a day to reach Room temperature you're treating it. Just feel the water in the tank to know when it's room temperature.

I suggest that changing out all of the water and cleaning the tank doesn't allow the tank to balance its self. With time the tank produces enzymes that "aat" some of the bad stuff.

The amount of conditioner to use is based on the size of the tank. I'd follow the directions given by the staff.

We bought the fish from a small pet store with a good sized fish department. I found them to be knowledgable. The fish section of the store was manned with a trained expert in all things fish. It was their recommendation to buy a tank with a filter and light. The light increased the brightNess of the fish. It's been several years but it cost around $25.

Depending on the type of water your community has, you may still need to use the water conditioner.

It used to be that you could set water out for about 24 hours and the chlorine would dissipate... however, most communities use chloramine, since it is much more stable. Chloramine does not dissipate easily, and you need to use the declorinator (the water conditioner) to break down the chloramine.

The amount you use depends on how much water you are using..... most will say something like 1/2 cap for 1 gallon of water, or something like that. That may be why you see different directions.

I preferred using the betta pellets, also... I would just give them 2-3 pellets a day.... remember, their stomach is about the size of their eye, so they don't need much food! (At one time, I had probably 10 bettas, each in their own 1/5 gallon tank.... water changes did take a while, but it was pretty easy. I usually changed their water every 3 days with that size tank.)

I'm not really sure why your tank is so cloudy.... how large is it? Cloudy water usually comes from overfeeding and the fish waste.

http://www.petsit.com/facts-about-betta-fish?id=327278

We had a Betta fish that lived for nearly 5 years and I only put unfiltered, tap water into his bowl. We lived in AZ at the time, so faucet water is naturally quite warm. I never let it sit. Sometimes I forgot to feed it daily.

One day I was changing the fish bowl water, where I would put him in a smaller container, while I scoured his regular fish bowl, but then my husband turned off the main water line to our home and I left the fish on the counter while I left the kitchen and did something else. My husband came in and asked where the fish was, and I thought, really? are you blind it's right there on the counter, and he said it wasn't, but I didn't really believe him, so I finished what I was doing, about 10 minutes and came out and sure enough, the fish was gone. We looked and looked and I couldn't find it. Well, the dishwasher door was partly ajar, and I opened it to put in a few items and the fish was on the bottom, so I plopped him back into the water, and he swam around right away.

I think he would have lived longer, but we gave him to a neighbor to fish sit for a couple of weeks while we were out of town and she cleaned his bowl with a stronger detergent and didn't rinse the bowl very well and the chemicals killed him within a few hours :( They felt horrible.

Anyway, they're pretty hardy little guys if you really do follow the basics.

You are really underfeeding your fish. Our fish eat way more than 2-3 flakes apiece. I would get a 2 gallon (or larger) tank and filtration system. Bettas don't need a heater (as long as you keep your home regular room temperature) but they do need filtration. You should be feeding the amount he will eat in 1-2 minutes.

Well, I have had fish forever, huge tanks and bettas. I don't have any right now. However, I think the longest I had a betta was over 4 years. I fed it about every 4-5 days and would drop in 4-5 pellets. And I rarely changed the water but would just fill it with tap water when it got low, and put in a few drops of the water conditioner. I always heard a hungry fish is a happy fish but know that there are a ton of opinions out there. I hope you find something that helps. Good luck.