A fishblr blog @colorful-bettas - Tumblr Blog

27snakesinatrenchcoat

Them.

idonthavealife-ihavefish

My new boy, currently without a name! I was lucky this time, my lfs never has plakats!

praetorianxeno

anabantoid

The Ubiquitous Betta Care Guide

Literally everyone and their mother has written a care guide about bettas, but I felt like I could provide a care guide based around my opinions and experiences in keeping bettas. I’ve kept bettas since I was about 15 years old, they were one of my first fish, and I fell in love with them and at one point I had over a dozen bettas at one time! That’s ridiculous now, but this was 2005/2006, bettas were cheaper and not as disposable then, definitely lasting for the oft-quoted “2-3 year” lifespans that people struggle to see today. Nowadays, I struggle to be able to get a betta to live past 6 months. So, what’s happening? Am I suddenly taking worse care of bettas than I did when I was 15?

Well, no, all of my most recent bettas were kept in tanks that were over 50 gallons, well planted, my tap water is soft (kH of 5), my pH is neutral (7-7.4) and my water is easily modified with botanicals or wood to be about 6 if need be. They live in filtered tanks with 80 degree water, eat nothing but live or frozen food, and never fall ill with disease or parasites. That’s more than I can say about teenage me. I dealt with a lot of issues, obviously, from bacterial to fungal infections because of my ignorance, but nowadays I can’t say I’ve had to treat a betta for anything, they just sorta..die, and at seemingly random too. What’s going on?

Today, bettas come in every color, shape and variety you can think of, which wasn’t the case when I was 15. The reason for the huge variety is the desire for more ornamental fish, but for commercial selling, there’s mass breeding on an industrial scale which leads to poor stock, inbreeding, and deformed fish and genetic issues we just can’t see. It doesn’t matter if it’s a local breeder or from a store, they’re all coming from the same stock now.

I’ve touched about betta problems in the past, and if you’ve followed my blog for a few years or see me in my discord server (Fish Tea), then you already know how I feel. That’s not what this post is about! This post is about caring for your betta, what I’ve learned in my experiences with them, and how to treat and care for the common ailments that befall them.

Keep reading

bee-menagerie

Some more Caligula pics, now that he’s settled down..! He has so many different hues of blue on him…from like–dark purple-blue to bright turquoise..! Bonus!:

he screm

betta-butch

noodle sporting her stripes

iantojonesthebetta

Beautiful Jo being as radiant as always. <3

(Even despite her scaling getting wonky on her side because of the dragonscale curse.)

fishiesforcompliments

She finally has a name: Huckleberry (Finn)

and she absolutely hates sitting still for pictures

pet-of-subs

She is absolutely stunning

photozoi

Most. Awesome. Fffish. Ever.

squishies

Newest set up :) I can't wait to put a fish in here (and maybe some cherry shrimp)

eelpatrickharris-deactivated202

life with wolf fish: a summary

eelpatrickharris-deactivated202

in case you were wondering, that loud thud is indeed him slapping down onto a plastic light hood and the video cuts off so quickly because i flung my phone away and ran for a net while he scrambled across the floor at a breakneck pace on his little pelvic and anal fins and snapped at my toes. anyways, i’m sure there are some nice wolves out there but this one has the bastard throttle yanked wide open to full blast

splendenscommabetta

fishkeeper feels

forgetting there is Always a little guy just in your room and then. remembering

y'all ever uhhh... baby talk to your fish a little bit? maybe quietly explain what you're doing as you clean the tank and move stuff around them like they actually care? yeah.

getting your first few pieces of equipment without knowing dick about shit and getting slowly more horrified at the amount of maintenance and money this is going to take

betta cups in Petco are shaped for hold...

telling dramatized aquarium stories to your non-fishkeeper friends to make what you did last night (clean the tank) sound exciting

why won't these fucking rocks stay in their fucking spot god fucking damnit i will eat you like cereal you stupid chunks of shit just stay where you're fuckin- YES. YES PERFECT.

are my

are my fish judging me?

is that a thing?

oh god

when you gotta siphon tank water with your mouth because you're too cheap for a gravel vacuum and at this point it doesn't even register how lowkey nasty that is anymore

looking at the thermometer real quick and then looking at the thermometer again just to check and then looking at the thermometer one more time just to make sure and looking at the-

flizzey

My “turquoise alien” betta, Klaus!

I didn’t expect to ever own one of these guys, but I totally fell in love with his personality at the fish store. He has all the chill-ness of a wild and the confidence of a domestic.