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Deleted because phot didn't post. Let's try it again. This is my first Betta in over 25 years. What do you think of him:88):88)

OldTimer attached this image:

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Very nice

I once let my son choose a betta for me on his birthday and it looked very much like yours. Of all the bettas I ever kept it was my favorite and lived the longest.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Classic red betta, very nice.

That's a very beautiful Betta.



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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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Looks like my boy, Equity.

Take care with him... looks like he might have a touch of fin rot. See that dark edging at the end of his tail? Keep an eye on that. Might be his coloring, but it might be bacterial fin rot. I just don't want you to lose your new friend!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

OldTimer

I am about to set up my second tank ever and make it a Betta tank in over 30+ years.

A they say never too old to learn.

It is a very big learning J curve for me.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Great looking Betta! Reminds me of one that I had, named Vette -- because I've always wanted a red Corvette!

I hope you get as much pleasure out of your beautiful Betta Boy that I have....

It's so peaceful to watch as they glide through the water... And other than a sunrise or sunset, I don't believe there is anything else that could match the beauty when they flare their magnificent fins!

The only drawback I've ever had with Bettas is the OBSESSION!!!!

If I had more time, and perhaps space --- I would dearly love to breed them! (And I definitely have enough beauties to do so!) But alas! My life just can't handle that right now.... But maybe when I'm able to retire....

Anyway..... CONGRATULATIONS and BEST WISHES in your return to Bettas! /:'

To thine own self be true...

Lovely betta. Reminds me of my first betta, given to my by my daughter and son-in-law one Christmas. Christopher picked him out especially cause he was Texas Tech red and named him Raider Red for me.

He is a beauty, kind of like the one I tried to persuade leslie to buy today but with a different kind of tail...still don't know much about bettas, except they have personality! heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Jim, I thought that was a picture of my "Ruby" (aka, Rube). Beautiful.

Certainly watch the tail, but black is usually an indication of healing in fish. If they are in really bad water then transferred to good water quality, fins and even skin can turn black temporarily. Somewhere I have pictures of my goldfish when I first got them with this occurring. One had a mechanical injury of the tail (it was obvious since it was squared off ). He came from a 10 gallon tank, shared with two other goldies and it had about 200ppm of Nitrates (I checked the bag water, certain it was high). 3 days after I get him into my 10ppm nitrate, 36 gallon tank, his tail starts turning black all around the injured area. Panicking, I looked it up in the best of all fish care books, Fancy Goldfish and Dr. Eric Johnson wrote about blackness and how it relates to healing when fish are in improved water quality. I watched the black fade away in the coming days and the fin began to grow in the notched out area. The new growth, like in betta fins, was white.

I just about died when my other betta Ruben (aka, Rube ) had a fin meltdown 2 weeks ago. Don't panic if you see this and know that once it starts they can lose half a tail in a day as it disintegrates. I was able to stop it with BettaMax later that day. Once it starts, there is no stopping the damaged parts from falling off. I didn't realize I had gone longer than the usual 6-7 days on my 100% water change (2 gal container) and had actually lapsed maybe 10-12. I had seen such a meltdown once before on Ruby, my red betta and just keeping him in clean water did nothing to stop the progressive meltdown. It took a nitrofuran antibiotic. Ruby had been neglected by someone else and I "stole" him, with permission, when I saw the meltdown.

Are you keeping him in a filtered tank with other fish or in a container?

Last edited by Cory_Di at 29-Mar-2005 07:54

Diane,

He is in a heated and filtered 2 gallon aquarium. I have been watching him closely since I got him and the "black" on the fin does not seem to be progressing. However, it doesn't appear to be going away either.

I'm currently doing partial water changes of approximately 25% 1 - 2 times a week. As I'm not really that knowledgeable when it comes to bettas should I be treating the tank or should I take a wait and see attitude

Thanks for the interest and advice.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Hey - is it one of those little tanks with a UGF? If so, that's what I have.

Jim, you need to watch ammonia and nitrite. I used Fritz Zyme-7 and Cycle and was surprised to see that a betta could produce ammonia and nitrite with such bacterial starters. The tank will want to cycle, even tho bettasare low waste producers and don't eat much. If you used seeded gravel you may not see anything, but I finally had to go buy a packet of Bio-Spira which eliminated it. Ammonia can create a fin meltdown, I believe. Check ammonia and nitrite just to be sure. I was checking daily and doing water changes accordingly without disturbing gravel too much. If you can get any bacterial starter or throw some seeded gravel in, that would help immensely. I was uncomfortable with even 0.25 of either toxin. I also used 2 drops per gallon of Prime to help control ammonia and nitrite, but the BioSpira finally knocked its socks off within about 2 days and ended all the fuss.

The question may be, is the black the result of ammonia? With these tiny tanks, they can turn on a dime, but once established should be pretty robust. I lowered my water level to reduce current a little in my mini-bow 2.5. The other 3 gallon I have didn't have much current so that wasn't necessary.

I'm finding that once it is seeded, the nitrates rise quicker than I expected. I am still trying to figure out how fast. I pretty much do about 70% changes every 5 days right now, but I need to do two successive changes in one day to get it down close to zero and see how long it takes to get to 15ppm - my max target for these tanks.

I've ordered a bunch of anubias nana v. petite for these tanks and crypt willisii. Much of this will not get any bigger than 2 inches and the anubias nana v. petite, even smaller. Right now I have a 3 inch Java Fern in each tank. I got them from Petco in some sealed tube with no water in it . It advertised snail free, and it was. The plants will cut down on water changes as they reduce the nitrates.



Last edited by Cory_Di at 29-Mar-2005 08:30

I tested the water this afternoon and my parameters were ammonia 0.0, nitrites 0.0, nitrates were pretty high and difficult to ascertain positively, but were at least 40.0. So I'm going to do a 50% water change a little later this evening.

Should I treat the tank with anything at this point?

Additional info that may be of importance the tank was setup for approximately 10 days and was seeded with gravel from another tank prior to adding the betta. He has been in the tank now for 8 days.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Seeded from another tank - that's the best with a UGF running . See what I mean about how fast the nitrates can rise. As long as you don't fluctuate temp more than 1-1.5F, you can go to 70 or 80%. Consider betta people who keep them in unfiltered tanks do 100% water changes weekly, give or take. 40ppm is the max, but I'd set a target for 20ppm to be the max. And, if you choose to put some anubias nana petite or other small plants in there, you'll have some of the nitrate going to use. I just got 10 from AZ Gardens and they are gorgeous looking and snail free. You have to look under the Misc/Special or Limited - whatever they call that section under plants. There is limited supply of the nana v. petite so I'd scoop some up while you can . I'll post later on my experience with AZ Gardens. Just make sure you are home when plants come or you get to go to FEDEX to pick them up. .

nice red guy. welcome back to the world of bettas.