Just wondering if anybody These fish. Just been doing a bit of reading on a Web page and it was saying that you don't need a filter because they breathe oxygen from the surface. I have a 20 gallon tank here. Was thinking about having a couple of these fish. Problem is, I don't think you would see the fish if they are at the surface all the time. I would imagine that most people keep them in aquariums that don't have a lid, at least you can see them then. Any information would be helpful.

Yup, I've kept several previosly. Males are extremely aggressive and will kill another male no matter how big the tank. Will probably kill any other fish with long trailing fins. Females are very subtle though, won't kill each other. Some people say you can keep a female with a male, and they'll be fine, but some others said that the two would kill each other- i heard that on a betta forum.

They like plants, but it's not really a requirement. I think you would need a filter, they're dirty like any other fish- but the do breathe air so no nice filter or aerator is required.

They're very cool looking, and there's a lot of varieties. Pretty easy to keep if you follow the basic rules. They like a ph of 6.7-8.0

I would imagine that it will be good idea to have a certain type of aquarium when keeping these fish, after all I would imagine there will be at the surface quite a lot, you want to be able to see them.

Bettas have an organ that allows them to breath air under conditions of poor water quality. Their natural habit that is rice patty type water that can dry into small dirty puddles in the dry season. That Labyrinth organ (I may have butchered that spelling) keeps them alive. You can keep a betta in a community tank and it would be just fine. It would spend most of it's time at the surface though. Don't mix bettas with fin nipppers. Barbs, guppies, and danios hate bettas. Most people keep bettas in bowls. That's probably the best way to have one. Nice stagnant water with a glassy calm surface. Of course you should be changing the water frequently. But that won't be a problem since you've got hundreds of gallons of prestine aquarium water there. Just don't let your place get too cold. Bettas aren't all that active under 65 degrees F. And they are basically dead if they get close to 50 degrees. Don't fill the bowls all the way to the top either. Bettas will get out if it's easy enough. They don't realize that they'll never find a mate on your countertop. I kept a betta in a community tank when I was a kid and "babysat" both of my sister's for the two years she was away at school. They aren't too bad. I'll say that in bowls it's tricky not to overfeed them because they don't eat much at all. And in aquariums they will get kicked around by the currents. For being called a "Fighting Fish" they aren't all that tough at all.

Oh yeah, and if you're going to go the bowl route, get two males. (in seperate bowls of course) Then at least you can occasionally let them see each other. When this happens they will both jump straight into their fighting stances. This display is very impressive indeed. The two fish that my sis and I kept in bowls lived for nearly five years. So don't look at the bowls as totally inhumane like some folks do. That is actually a lot closer to their natural habitat than a tank.

I keep and breed bettas at the moment and have doen on and off for years. I have even made a dvd all about breeding thses fantastic little fish. It is true that you can only keep one male as males will fight on sight, in fact in Thailand betta fighting is a national sport with money being bet on who will win the fight. Thewy can be kept in smaller tanks than other fish but this does not mean that they can be left without changing the water. They do have an auxilliary organ for taking air form the surface instead of extracting oxygen form the water through their gills like other fish. They have evolved this organ so that they can survive in the conditions which they are found which is small pools of water that are low in oxygen. that said they are a fantastic little fish and most people that get into bettas get betta fever and have to have lots of tanks to keep them. they are fascinating to breed and the colour and finnage forms that we have now are fantastic. There are halfmoons,crowntails,doubletails, deltas and they can be in lots of different colours: blues reds, greens, yellows, blacks to name but a few. I do have my own website all about bettas and im sure that OFL wont mind me giving it out Its www.bettasplendens.co.uk there are a couple of uk forums for bettas and there are some really good international ones. There is also an international body that judges bettas called the IBC. but be warned they can take over your life if your not careful. Much like Oscars i suppose.

so just 1 betta by itself? I've got a 20g jewel aquarium here. any good?

Yes you can put a single betta in a 20 gallon tank but i would put some other fish in with him. So long as they are not fin nippers he will be ok some tetras and perhaps some corydoras catfish. Check out www.kgbettas.co.uk hes got some stunners coming soon from Thailand.He is on holiday at the moment but he will send them local fish shops tend just to have the boring red and blue bettas. In the far east the males are all grown on in jars and they get 100% water changes every day to grow them on really quick. because i breed them myself i grow the males on in 2ltr pop bottles just cut the top off. You could have several males by setting up your 20 gallon and keeping the males in 3 litre coke bottles in the tank. Get you bottle and melt some small holes in the sides all around the bottle, i use a fork heated up on the gas(dont use it to eat afterwards tho)Place about 1 inch of gravel in the bottom and then fill your tank up. If you have say 10 bottles in the tank you could have 10 males and the water would circulate through the holes in the bottle. you could have a small internal filter to filter the water and push the current around to keep the water in the bottles fresh. Check out one of my spawning clips on youtube at

also check out www.bettatalk.com Faith is totally outrageous and one of the worlds leading authorities on bettas shes even been on the tele. There is also the uk betta forum for great advice form other betta fanatics

Have you got any photos of the perfect tank setup? That website had loads of photos of fish, but none of the actual tank. I think my 20 gallon tank would be perfect for a betta and maybe two or three other fish. I'm thinking that if I only have two or three fish, including the betta, the water conditions will not deteriorate too quickly.

And how much can you expect to pay for a good quality one

Because my set ups are breeding ones they will be different so i dont have pics of set ups if you go to the uk betta forum im sure you will find some to give you some ideas.

How about ultimate bettas? That's a pretty nice forum about these fish.

Previously, I've kept my bettas in large(five gallon) bowls, and sometimes in 10 gallon community tanks. Some people say that you can keep them in small confines(like bowl) because they live in shallow water in the wild. True, but these rice feilds are massive, and hold thousands of gallons in which the bettas move freely. Also, bettas dislike tall tanks-not so sure why though. Dinger545's idea of liter bottles in a tank sounds interesting. I'm sure they'd flare a lot. There's nothing more impressive in the community fish hobby than to see a flame crowntail betta flare.

There are actually three described species of betta, one of which i beleive is rarely kept in the hobby. The most usually found at the pet shop or your breeder is betta splendens. I've kept several varieties of betta splendens including the crowntail, and the veiltail.

Also note that many(not all) but many of the bettas purchased at a pet shop are adults and will only live 2-4 years. Babies and young specimens can be aquired from breeders and should live much longer if kept properly.

So what would be a typical tank for someone who keeps these fish? Do The real diehard enthusiasts keep just bettas in a small tank, or would they keep them in larger tanks with other fish?

Some of these biorb tanks look perfect if we just wanted to one fish. I've seen some that are 30 L going up to around 60 L.

Actually there are quite a lot more batta species that are available in the hobby now but some of them are quite rare. For a female betta pet stores will normally ask for around £2 and a male £4-5. For a female from a breeder it will be £4-6 depending on what colours and what finnage for a male between £6-12 depending on what colour or tail form. you will pay a premium for halfmoons. tank mates for bettas would be as i said before small tetras and corydoras set up would be a gravel bottom (clear if you intend to breed) decor as you like perhaps with some plants they especially like floating plants. They dont always spend their time at the top of the water but they do need to go to the surface every now and then. Filtration should be slow moving Bettas are not suited to fast moving water check out the filers that i use in some of my tanks at
this is a video i made to show how to make them. If you want some real quality ones check this page www.kgbettas.co.uk/comingsoon.htm
get these and they will do what the song on the page says. kev is a top bloke ive bought form him myself even drove to stoke on Trent from Portsmouth to pick them up heres one of my recent additions