Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!reid
From: reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Beta something-or-other
Message-ID: <214@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Date: 1 Jan 88 00:05:19 GMT
References: <4014@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Reply-To: reid@decwrl.UUCP (Brian Reid)
Distribution: usa
Organization: DEC Western Research
Lines: 37


Ah, finally a question I can answer rather than ask. I have Bettas.
A Betta is a Siamese Fighting fish. They are small, delicate-looking
freshwater fish. They have the unusual (among fish) ability to breathe air
through a hole in the top of their head, so they will survive for long
periods of time under the most amazing conditions. It is a good thing,
actually, because you have to keep them under the most amazing conditions if
you want more than one.

If you put two male Bettas in a tank, they will fight until one of them dies.
Usually both do. It is reputed that certain people find this fun to watch.
I've only seen it once, and it was horrifying. You can kill a male Betta
fairly easily by taping a mirror to the inside of the tank; every time he
sees his reflection he will fluff himself up to full fighting dander and
attack the mirror. He will do this often enough that he forgets to eat, and
will die in a few days. 

Bettas like dirty, murky, sluggish, warmish water. Many of the Betta books
recommend dissolving brown crud in the water to make them feel more at home.
I fill my Betta tanks with lots of live plants, and the Bettas love to get
lost in them.

If you keep 3 male Bettas you need 3 tanks. There is no way around it.
Luckily you can keep them for weeks in a tank the size of a grapefruit,
because they can breathe air. However, they are much happier if you give them
a big murky algae-filled warmish freshwater tank to prowl around in. Female
Bettas do not look interesting, and they do not fight each other. Getting
male and female Bettas to be interested in each other in a home aquarium is
almost as difficult as getting male and female panda bears to do it in a zoo.

Bettas do not live very long. A year or two at most. I lost one when it was
eaten by a Plecostemus, and another one when it managed to get its head
wedged in the intake strainer of a power filter (that was before I learned
that Bettas prefer yucky water). But if you take flawless care of them, they
still die relatively young.

Brian Reid