A Video of the Pastel Betta

My pastel betta is a bit more shy than my multi-colored betta, so getting him to profile and stretch those fins is more of a challenge. I had never seen a betta with his coloring before - gold, lavender and green on a cream background - and he has become quite the pet. He usually watches me wash dishes and "follows" me around the kitchen from his tank, which is located on the counter between the kitchen and the breakfast nook.

It is also next to the multi-colored betta. This allows them to see each other, but it also gives them privacy when they swim elsewhere in their separate tanks.

A Video of the Double Comb-Tail Betta

I received so many comments last week about the photograph of my multi-colored double-comb betta, that I made a video this weekend of him.

I placed a mirror near his tank. When bettas see another betta or a fish they perceive to be a threat, they extend their fins as far as possible. It makes them look larger and a more formidable opponent, which hopefully would send "the other guy" running (or swimming) away.

Lavendar and Green Pastel Betta

Earlier this week, I profiled the multi-colored double-comb betta, and I mentioned that his tank is beside another betta tank.

Below is a picture of the second betta, a lavender and green pastel betta.

This betta is younger than my other one, so he has not yet reached his adult size or fin length. He is a double delta betta. He lives, like my other one, in a 2.5 gallon betta tank on the counter between my kitchen and my breakfast nook. One side is beside the other betta tank, which allows him to "profile", stretching his fins and getting some exercise. The other three sides are clear, allowing him to get some needed privacy or watch what is going on outside his tank.

On one side is my kitchen sink, and whenever I am working at the sink, he wants to watch what I am doing. Here he is, swimming among the castle "ruins" and plant in his tank, to keep an eye on me.

Multi-Colored Double-Comb Betta

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of one of my bettas, which got quite a bit of attention.

Below is a better picture of this multi-colored double-comb male betta.

This betta lives in a 2.5 gallon tank that resides on the counter between my kitchen and the breakfast nook. He lives alone. His fins are so long that it takes effort to swim, which makes him a slow-moving fish. That means he would be easy prey for faster-moving fish who enjoy nipping, like barbs.

I also must keep the water movement to a minimum. This tank has a bottom filter with an air stone in the middle. I have adjusted this air stone for very little air, which keeps the current from overwhelming this betta.

Inside the tank are a couple of castle "ruins" and a plant. On one side is another betta tank, allowing him to get some exercise by "profiling" and stretching his fins out, as he is doing in the picture above. The other three sides are clear, which allow him to get some privacy or watch what is going on outside his tank.

Super Delta Betta

Last week I purchased a new betta. I have two betta tanks; in one, I have a double comb betta in blue, green and red. In the video below, you can see the double comb fins very dramatically. He loves to swim with his fins completely fanned out, especially since a new betta has joined him in the tank next door.



The new betta is a pearl Super Delta. The tips of his fins are actually pearlescent green, which I believe will be stunning as he goes. He is just a baby now. The Super Deltas can grow to be 2-3 inches in length, which makes them larger than many other betta varieties.



Bettas require little care and are quite hardy and robust. They're the perfect fish for the novice, which is why I got my grandchildren started in fishkeeping with bettas of their own.

New Betta

Now that Emmie Lou has moved from the betta tank to the community tank, I found my betta tank empty and the adjoining betta depressed. Seems he enjoyed watching Emmie Lou in the next tank over, and once she was gone, he was lonely. He spent his days hovering on that one side, looking for her.

So I decided to get another betta. The small, 2-1/2 gallon tanks are easy to clean if I can remove the one fish inside, so although I contemplated something like neons or glofish, that idea was short-lived since they'd be harder to catch during each water change. And smaller tanks can get dirtier much faster than larger ones.

My friendly local pet shop phoned me to let me know a new shipment of betta babies had just come in, so off I went.

Here is the new, multi-colored betta. He is a comb-tailed betta, the first one I've had. He seems very happy to be out of a cup and in a real tank. He is about 1/3 of the size of the adult betta.

How to Humanely Euthanize a Fish

Yesterday, I wrote about a black angel that has dropsy (shown here), which occurs when the intestines are blocked. I know this post won't be for everybody but I am writing about this unfortunate circumstance to help other fish owners.

You see, about a year ago I had a sick betta named Butch Cassidy. (The Sundance Kid was in an adjoining tank.) He was old (nearly three years old) and simply began to go downhill. My first preference is to allow nature to run its course. If he had been ill with something that could be diagnosed and treated - such as the ick - I would have been transferring him to a hospital tank right away to treat him. In fact, I keep an arsenal of medications here in the event of common, treatable problems. Because if something goes wrong, it will happen when the pet store is closed and it's an emergency!

But this betta didn't pass away. He curled up so his nose touched his back fin. He lay on the bottom of the tank, motionless. Each morning and each afternoon I thought he was dead but when I put the net in, he made a determined effort to swim to the surface for air.

This went on for THREE WEEKS. Obviously, this fish was suffering. He wasn't eating. He wasn't swimming. He was lying on the gravel. He was dying. Only his suffering was continuing day after day after day. (He is shown here in happier days when he felt so good he made a bubble nest to attract a female.)

I knew he wasn't going to get better. So the only humane thing to do was help to put him out of his misery - quickly.

I researched this issue all over the web. Suggestions from experts ranged from putting him into a ziplock bag and putting him in the freezer to placing him in a bowl filled with chemicals. In each case, it was going to take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for him to pass away. I couldn't do that to the little fella. I couldn't put him in my freezer and check on him periodically to see if he was frozen solid yet. Just couldn't do it.

And for God's sake, don't ever flush a live fish down the toilet.

So as bad as this sounds, this was the only way I could ensure that his suffering ended as quickly as it possibly could. And I want to state for the record that this was an action of last resort, not something I would have willingly done if there had been any other way to help him.

If you face this situation, you'll need three things: a net, a ziplock bag and a hammer.

I timed it - from start to finish, this took 8 seconds:

I netted the little fella and placed him into a ziplock bag (without water.)

I sealed the ziplock bag shut very quickly to prevent unnecessary suffering.

I laid the bag on the counter and I hit it once with the hammer.

Trust me, he was dead.

I think the most important thing was to do it quickly. I hated doing it but once I decided it was the only humane thing to do, it needed to be done swiftly to prevent more unnecessary pain.

Then he had a proper burial.

God rest his soul.

Meet the Bettas

In addition to the angelfish tanks, I have two beautiful bettas. They each have their own two gallon tank on the counter between the kitchen and the breakfast room. It gives them plenty of opportunity to watch all that goes on.

One looks like a peacock. It is a double veiltail. It might be difficult to see the colors in this photograph but they rang from blue to green with white around the edges. He is about one year old.

The other is a golden double veiltail. He is about two years old. He lives with a snail, who helps to keep his tank clean. Sometimes bettas will tolerate or even enjoy a snail in their tank because it gives them someone to watch. Other times, they try to get aggressive. That's why the peacock betta does not have a snail living with him.

The tanks are side by side so the two bettas can flare up and profile to each other. But when they want privacy, they can go to the other side of their tank and hang out.

I've heard people say that they put bettas in community tanks. But you have to be careful when doing this, because their long, flowing fins slow them down considerably - making them easy prey for fish who like to nibble on those fins, like barbs and some tetras.

If they are placed in a tank with other fish with flowing fins who look similar to them (such as male guppies) they will often mistake them for another male betta and fight.

Bettas also need shallow water and they tend to live near the top of their tanks, because in addition to breathing through their gills they can breathe air from the surface. So the tall tanks I have for my large angelfish are inappropriate for the bettas.

They are carnivores, which means they only eat plants when they are starving to death. That means those vases with a plant stuck in them that are marketed to people wanting a single betta they never have to feed is simply cruel. It also gives people a very wrong impression about the care bettas need to thrive.

When male bettas are happy, they will build a bubble nest at the surface of their tanks. They are trying to entice a female betta to come on over and lay her eggs.