Before You Buy Your Betta Fish

Published May 3, 2010 | By admin

Part 1 of 3 On buying your first Siamese Fighting Fish

Welcome, I’m presuming that if you’ve come to this page that you’re interested in buying your very first Siamese Fighting Fish aka Betta Fish or Betta Splendens. So first of all, let me say you’ve come to the right place. You see I recently went in search of our very first Siamese Fighting Fish and what I thought was going to be a relatively straight forward exercise actually turned into more of a search for the truth, as what I learnt was there are a few varying opinions on the best way to actually care for your Betta Fish.

Therefore the most important point to make right from the start is to first learn how to care for your Betta fish before you even think about buying one. Bettas have a reputation for being really easy to care for, and this is true but if you go about it the wrong way it’s also just as easy to kill your Betta as well. So this is what I discovered along the way.

The first thing I did was to conduct some research on Siamese Fighting Fish and spent about a week (on and off) researching the internet and talking to sales staff at the pet shop and I must admit that what I learnt left my head spinning. There was just so much contradictory information that it really was hard to know who to believe.

So here’s what I found out. Firstly I did some initial research on the internet followed by a visit to some pet shops and aquariums to talk to the sales staff and basically what I discovered was this. Just get a small container (or jar), glass or plastic, fill it with tap water, add some decorations and gravel (optional?), add some water conditioner and then 1 male Siamese Fighting Fish. Then feed it once or twice a day and replace about half the water in the tank about once a week and that was basically it. Pretty easy really, these fish really did seem to be low maintenance.

In fact I nearly went ahead and bought a fish right there and then, as it all just seemed too easy but I was by myself and really wanted my 9 year old daughter to be there so she could be a part of it and pick out the one she wanted. You see despite the fact that I’d been interested in getting a Betta Fish for quite awhile, my wife and daughter were also interested so it was important that they be there for the purchase as well. So despite having put off my initial purchase until the weekend I still decided to purchase a small reference book on Betta Fish just so I’d be prepared for our new addition to the family.

You know it’s funny how things turn out sometimes as it was this book that led me to do even more research on the topic. You see the more I read the book the more questions I had but the unfortunate part was that the book the didn’t really answer my questions.

This then lead me to get back on Google again and what I came across were some really great websites that were written by Betta enthusiasts that also had experience breeding them as well. I also found some eBooks that were very reasonably priced so I purchased and downloaded them and before I knew it a had a wealth of information in front of me that actually painted a picture that was quite a bit different from what I’d learnt at the pet shops.

The information I got from the experts was of a fish that did have some specific requirements and it wasn’t quite as straight forward as the picture that was painted by the pet shop staff. These references suggested setting the tank up 1 week before introducing the fish, using a heater, a filtration system, larger tank, checking water pH, ammonium, nitrites and nitrate levels, introducing live plants, sand and gravel. This was quite a bit different to the initial information I was given.

I thought the Betta was used to living in just the hoof print of a Water Buffalo in the blazing sun in whatever water he was lucky enough to find. All this pampering really did seem to be over doing it, right? But then I started to think about it.

The pet shop obviously had an interest in portraying the Siamese Fighting Fish as a fish that requires minimal care as this makes the customer more inclined to make the purchase. While the Betta breeder/enthusiast has an interest in portraying the ideal environment for the Betta as they have reputation to uphold as a credible source of information. So it then begs the question who is correct? Well to answer this can I just make this statement.

I’d been a avid gardener for many years and living in Melbourne, Australia I become accustomed to growing drought tolerant plants due to the fact that until late 2009 we’d been in drought on and off for over 10 years. The one thing that I’d learnt from gardening in a drought was that many drought tolerant plants will survive in a drought but one thing most won’t do is flourish. Their growth will be slower and their flowers less prolific and this of course is common sense. Therefore to apply this rule to Siamese Fighting Fish also makes common sense.

So who is correct the pet shop or the Betta enthusiast? Well I would say both, in varying degrees but like most things in life the answer usually lies somewhere in between. Betta fish will survive in a small glass container but all they will do if survive. If you follow the directions of the Betta enthusiast your Betta fish will flourish in their ideal environment but is it necessary to actually go to this extent to make your Betta Fish happy?

Well, probably not.

Therefore, armed with all this knowledge and two varying opinions I then went about putting together a tank that I felt would house a Betta quite happily without spending a great deal of money on something that was intricate and took a great deal of time to maintain.

Therefore your first step to owning a Betta fish is to do some research.

But first read about how I went about setting up my Betta Tank and what I learnt along the way.

Click here to continue…………

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