Betta Keeping Techniques

[J. H.]

Yuki Rihwa , and anyone else who knows about bettas, here are some questions:

Well, back at the time when I was a kid, I did look at my dad Beta "cup" (yes, they are live in a glass bottle cup, a bottle that cut in half) collection rack on our house wall. You know, if you go to an Asian fish store and look at their betas cup rack...Thats how my dad setup his hundred of beta "cups" LOL. I did have a setup like that when I'm around 6~7 years old and at that age I'm already "master" beta breeding in my town, my betas beat all other kids beta with ease (yeah, we Asian kids do have beta fight event daily after school )

Where can I learn more of this method of betta keeping? How big are the cups?Are they filtered? How much WC? Is it like the whiskey bottle/mini tank/growout pond system used in Thailand? Please make a thread about it.

Anyone else kept bettas or knows about keeping them?
Any other methods?
What is the whole cup vs 1 gal vs 2.5 gal vs 5 gal fight about?
Do they really need live food to be healthy? To breed?
How hard is it to comm them? in a 10? a 30? a 55? a 90?
Are 850mL jars big enough?
Is a big tank with partitions better than a bunch of jars?
Can you raise small gouramis or paradise fish the same way?
This 'drip system' for bettas, it is really all the jars hooked to one sump?

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Yuki Rihwa , and anyone else who knows about bettas, here are some questions:

Where can I learn more of this method of betta keeping? How big are the cups?Are they filtered? How much WC? Is it like the whiskey bottle/mini tank/growout pond system used in Thailand? Please make a thread about it.

Anyone else kept bettas or knows about keeping them?
Any other methods?
What is the whole cup vs 1 gal vs 2.5 gal vs 5 gal fight about?
Do they really need live food to be healthy? To breed?
How hard is it to comm them? in a 10? a 30? a 55? a 90?
Are 850mL jars big enough?
Is a big tank with partitions better than a bunch of jars?
Can you raise small gouramis or paradise fish the same way?
This 'drip system' for bettas, it is really all the jars hooked to one sump?

1) About the "cup" is just a standard wine bottle in US market but it's just square not round one and cut and half so I think it's around 12oz~14oz of water.
2) We manually change water each cup every other day (collected rain water)
3) We fed live food: babies betas will eat vegies oil for the first week, when they big enough they will eat the live tiny red thingy (sorry, I don't know its name in English), adult beta will eat live mosquito larva.
4) We keep breeding pair in separate cup and let them face each other few time a day (each session about 10 mins long), when the female ready (you can see the female beta belly will change color to yellowish, then we move them to a 1~2 gallon jar (rectangle) with 4 inches high of water with some anacharis. Why? Because it's easy for the male make bubble net, and easier to net out the female right after she done laying her eggs, also easier for the male carry the eggs and place them in his bubble net or put back any babies that fall out of the bubble and drop to bottom back to the net. When the babies become free swimming we removed the male beta and start the vegies oil feeding...etc. When it's big enough to eat the red thingy we move them into a bigger Jar (24in diameter and 30in height water fill 3/4, clay substrate with heavy live plant like anacharis). We usually separate them (male) when they are about 1 inches (around 6 months old). We keep the best looking female/male and the rest just go out to the water way connected to rice field, some will become bird, frog, other fish food, some will go on with it wild life...etc)
5) you can keep all betas and raise them together as babies to adult with ease as long you don't take any one out for a while then put it back in the group, the group will KILL that one and treat that one like an outsider or the one you put back must be a lot stronger and beat everyone up and that lead to community failing and you must remove all MALES at that point, this is apply to MALE betas. This only work for the batch that you hatched and raise them together.
6) We only breed the round tail beta (Siamese fighting fish) all color, the long tail or halfmoon beta is man made species (I meant collective breed and not available in the wild and suck for fighting)
*I have NO experience breeding/keeping gouramis or paradise fish like the way we done with fighting beta.
***Sorry about my broken English, I'm typically don't write that long. Also, everything I can get it done with my eyes close but explaining in English might lead to misunderstood.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

1. I keep (a) betta and know a little bit about them, I'm not an expert by any stretch but I know a little bit.


2. Other methods for what? Breeding them?


3. Personal opinion. Some people are happy to keep them in cups or jugs, some like to keep them in little 2.5gal tanks, and some (like myself) won't put them in anything smaller than 50ltrs (approx 12gal) for the long finned ones and 100ltrs (approx 25gal) for the short finned ones. But as I said, its all personal opinion. If you feel like your betta is happy in a cup, then I guess he will live in a cup.


4. They do not need live food to be healthy, a good brand of pellet (New Life Spectrum for example) will keep them perfectly healthy. It may help to condition them with small live foods for breeding but I don't think it would be "essential", they will still breed if fed pellets.


5. Both of mine lived in community tanks and I never had a problem with them but it all comes down to the individual betta. I have a friend who's betta won't tolerate any other fish in his tank no matter how bleak or mundane the other fishes color. Mine on the other hand happily shares his tank with every fish I've put him with.
If you are going to try one in a community I advise making sure the other fish don't have long fins or bright flashy colours as the betta may get 'jealous' and try fighting them. Also make sure that none of your other fish are nippy as the long fins on fancy bettas are very likely to get nipped.
I've had bettas in community tanks ranging from 120ltrs to 250ltrs, I've not tried in anything smaller than 120ltrs (approx 30gal) so I don't know how well that would work.

6. I couldn't tell you if 850ml jars are big enough, personally I wouldn't do it, but I'm sure it probably could be done.

7. I would assume a larger tank with little sections would probably be easier to maintain the water quality in than a bunch of jars, and that way you only have to do one water change on one tank as opposed to emptying and refilling hundreds of smaller jars. Just make sure the males can't see each other through the separators otherwise they'll spend all their time flaring up at each other which I'm sure can't be good for their long term health (I don't know this for sure but it seems like it makes sense)


8. I don't know about paradise fish or gouramis, as I've never kept them.


9. Yes. Go into your lfs and have a look at their set up, I'm sure if you asked nicely the staff would show you.


As I said I'm not an expert by any definition but I hope some of this information is useful to you.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

I just want to add that betas fish in our South East Asia are meant for fighting fish, we DO NOT keep them for display like in Westerner (USA) different culture = different view of points so they live in a cup for easy pickup them for the fight (I think if you google about beta fight you will see how we done but WARNING if you are sensitive about animal cruel then DO NOT EVER TRY).

 

[J. H.]

Thank you for the info!
So far, this thread has been more valuable than 3 hours of google

4) We keep breeding pair in separate cup and let them face each other few time a day (each session about 10 mins long), when the female ready (you can see the female beta belly will change color to yellowish, then we move them to a 1~2 gallon jar (rectangle) with 4 inches high of water with some anacharis.

Much simpler than the 'chimney' system I see people using, where the female is kept in a bottle in the male's tank.

when they big enough they will eat the live tiny red thingy (sorry, I don't know its name in English),

brine brine shrimp (artemia) naupilii (babies)?
Did you use tea leaves in your water?

2. Other methods for what? Breeding them?

Breeding them primarily, but also keeping the males/females together, keeping them in community tanks, keeping them alone, in short a 'everything to know about bettas' thread, maybe with some discussion of similar labyrinth fish.
Kittiee Katt , do you use a heater? If so, what do you keep it at?
Hendre candidpets I know you are paradise fish breeders. Do you run setups like the one Yuki Rhiwa described? If not, what are your setups like?
Here is a Youtube video I saw with a betta community Males & Females together in a small tank (40g), even breeding with no problems. I hear other people claiming the same thing.

Is this a scam, incredible fishkeeping, or luck, or is it like @Yuki Rhiwa said, that if you put them together real young they'll get along? I don't think that was done here.

 

[J. H.]

I just want to add that betas fish in our South East Asia are meant for fighting fish, we DO NOT keep them for display like in Westerner (USA) different culture = different view of points so they live in a cup for easy pickup them for the fight (I think if you google about beta fight you will see how we done but WARNING if you are sensitive about animal cruel then DO NOT EVER TRY).

I watched a video. Very cool, I can see why you lke it, but not my thing. I never really looked at bettas, but I saw some dragons at my lfs, and I am starting to like them...

 

[Kittiee Katt]

I do indeed use a heater. I live in a very cold climate, a fancy betta wouldn't survive the cold winter temperature without a heater. I keep the tank at 24°c and my betta Miles seems quite happy.

If you live in a warm climate you could probably get away with not having a heater, but I live in Tasmania so I don't have that option.

In summer I might unplug the heaters depending on how warm it gets but otherwise all my tanks are heated.

 

[J. H.]

I do indeed use a heater. I live in a very cold climate, a fancy betta wouldn't survive the cold winter temperature without a heater. I keep the tank at 24°c and my betta Miles seems quite happy.

24c = 75f. I am going to need to heat the bettas, if I get them. New York State is not the tropics, either.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

24c = 75f. I am going to need to heat the bettas, if I get them. New York State is not the tropics, either.

You could probably try a little lower, maybe 22°c, but at the end of the day bettas are tropical fish and won't do well long term in colder water unfortunately.

 

[J. H.]

You could probably try a little lower, maybe 22°c, but at the end of the day bettas are tropical fish and won't do well long term in colder water unfortunately.

In the winter, my house can go down to 55F (=13C) , as we turn off the heat at night. That would be enough to be fatal I imagine.