You might not believe fish can be happy...

nice, some shops here in the uk sell em from 1/2 pint sized glasses, sooo wrong!

So glad to hear your friend is giving him the whole 3g. It's definitely great to see them getting to swim about. Do you have any pics?

The only problem with bettas? They have a 2 year life span. Most people have them die within a year, and dont realize the fish was a a good number of months old when they bought it.

Redearsunfish said:

The only problem with bettas? They have a 2 year life span. Most people have them die within a year, and dont realize the fish was a a good number of months old when they bought it.

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They average at 3 but I have heard of ones living 7-10 years. I think it depends on who you buy from and how you keep them and such though.
I really hope mine will get to at least 3. Like you say though most we get at the LFS are already 6 months to a year old.

Redearsunfish said:

The only problem with bettas? They have a 2 year life span. Most people have them die within a year, and dont realize the fish was a a good number of months old when they bought it.

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My wifes betta lived for 4 years before developing a huge wart like tumor and lived with that for another year. She had it in one of the 2.5 gallon filtered tank. it was bought from the LFS nothing special except to her .

they are very cool... i have two, one comes to the glass when i tap it with my nail, knows its food time, the other flares at me everytime i walk past him in the kitchen!-)

I have a couple female bettas in my 1700 that are around 4 years old. They certainly don't need a lot of room... they tend to stay in their comfy spot of around 2 square feet where there is a lot of surface cover. Very rarely I'll see them on a perimeter patrol, less than once a month.

I never seem them more than an inch from the surface either... even though they have 5ft to explore.

spiff44 said:

I have a couple female bettas in my 1700 that are around 4 years old. They certainly don't need a lot of room... they tend to stay in their comfy spot of around 2 square feet where there is a lot of surface cover. Very rarely I'll see them on a perimeter patrol, less than once a month.

I never seem them more than an inch from the surface either... even though they have 5ft to explore.

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I wonder if the males are more likely to explore/patrol? I would think so but have never had female bettas to compare them to. My male crowntail Discord, when I first got him, was temporarily in our 55g. He went all over..he used all of his 20 long as well. He is now in a 10g and in a different spot every time I look at him so I imagine males and females might differ here or it's just down to their personality? Or maybe they are scared of other fish in your tank? What else is in there? ;o