Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ptsfa!pyramid!csg
From: csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Beta something-or-other (Betta!)
Message-ID: <12554@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 3 Jan 88 19:50:17 GMT
References: <4014@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <214@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 42

Thanks Brian, I was wondering if anyone else out there was making an effort
to take good care of these beautiful fish. You answered a number of questions
that we bothering me. All the pet shops seem to think a betta is happiest in a
brandy snifter at room temperature. They also think bettas are inactive fish
that mostly lie on the bottom. And by golly, if you keep a betta at room
temperature in a brandy snifter, they mostly lie on the bottom.... 

>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.

In Thailand, according to my betta book, people actually take bets on the
fish. Like cock fighting. (Bet a fish? Naw....) It's illegal, but then so is
cock fighting.

>Bettas like dirty, murky, sluggish, warmish water.

I'd emphasize the "warm and sluggish." I keep my tank at 79F, with just enough
aeration to keep the undergravel filter going. The fish is very active, and
very attentive; it will eat out of my hand and do tricks in the water when it
can see that I am watching. Cold water (73F) or normal aeration, and he lies
on the bottom in the corners. I thought he was ill, and the petshops said it
was "normal." Feh.

I dunno about disolving dirt in the water; the books I've seen prefer lots of
plants, as Brian has done. The dirt supposedly adds to the risk of disease.

Regarding the question about live food: I have my betta on a rotating diet of
live brine shrimp, and freeze-dried plankton and blood worms. All have the
important property that they either float or swim. Bettas tend to ignore food
that lies on the bottom and doesn't move, so you can forget any kind of flake
food. It took a while (three days of starving) to convince mine to try the
plankton; even now he doesn't pursue it vigorously, but he will eat it if it
is the only thing offered at feeding time. The blood worms go quickly, but the
brine shrimp are the favorite; depending on his mood, he'll either grab them
within an inch of the surface, or chase them around the tank for a while. 

I have not tried anything else freeze dried, since it all tends to sink. Bad
combination: tubiflex worms and gravel bottoms. The worms sink and tunnel in.
Eventually they need air and stick their heads up again, and the betta will
then nail them. But I like to see everything the fish eats. 

<csg>