First Female Betta! :d

[Emi Miyuki]

Hi! This is Emi again. My friend recently bought this little female betta, Atoli, that I had grown attached to in Walmart without telling me, then called me up saying that she bought her and to come pick her up So, she has the only tank I have til I hopefully get a better one for christmas.

She was a light purple colour when my friend got her, and she had the same nip in her bottom fin (though it seems to have healed a bit), then when I got her from my friend after a week she was the blue she is now, now in the tank she's grown a lot and lost some of the colour in her face I'm almost afraid to see how long she'll get in a bigger tank! She's near my furnace, so she's nice and cozy the majority of the time

The first question I have is something I've gotten confused with by searching for it online. Horizontal stripes like this: = on the top and bottom of her eyes, are aggressive and/or happy, or stressful? She gets them whenever I take her to get her water changed, and they get longer (extend a bit more past her gills) after she's in the clean tank. When it's dirty for almost a week she'll get stripes the opposite way, though halfway up her face, and still not past her gills.

The second, is it okay to feed her pellets when it takes so long for her to eat just one? She'll swim in circles chewing for about a minute on one. I have flakes, and they are easier for her to eat, but it results in funny looking waste.

The third (and last, I'm sorry for all the questions!!!) is that she gets bubbles on herself when in a clean tank, but they seem to go away. Are they harmless? I've never noticed them on my first two male betta's cause their tank was too full of bubbles to even see them clearly.

 

[bronzecat]

Hi

Nice looking betta

You "near the furnace.....toasty most of the time". Fluctuations in temperature are not good for fish, they need a constant temperature which can only be achieved with a heater. Get a little 25W heater and a thermometer

Also, I would suggest that in that small a tank the ammonia will build up quite quickly, so maybe do 25% water changes 2/3 times a week and a full change once a week. The only downside to having to do water changes too often is that it increases stress.

I haven't a clue what lines by the eyes are?? Horizontal lines which extend the length of the body are stress stripes.

Andy

 

[Emi Miyuki]

Hi

Nice looking betta

You "near the furnace.....toasty most of the time". Fluctuations in temperature are not good for fish, they need a constant temperature which can only be achieved with a heater. Get a little 25W heater and a thermometer

Also, I would suggest that in that small a tank the ammonia will build up quite quickly, so maybe do 25% water changes 2/3 times a week and a full change once a week. The only downside to having to do water changes too often is that it increases stress.

I haven't a clue what lines by the eyes are?? Horizontal lines which extend the length of the body are stress stripes.

Andy

Thanks, Andy!

Yes, we have a wood furnace so it goes out around four or five in the morning, and her water gets a bit cold. But it's not as bad as what my other two bettas had to go through (I was a newbie, and the tank was great to me then ) It hasn't reached refrigerator temperature, since my room keeps warm on that end. My tank is plastic, so I'm hoping for that glass one so I can get my heater I've been unable to find one for plastic tanks as tiny as this one.

I was afraid water changes would cause her stress I've been doing a complete change weekly, or when those stripes appear, which seem to appear before the week's over.

Is that horizontal stripes when you're looking down at her, or at her side?

 

[spicynoodle116]

Hi

Nice looking betta

You "near the furnace.....toasty most of the time". Fluctuations in temperature are not good for fish, they need a constant temperature which can only be achieved with a heater. Get a little 25W heater and a thermometer

Also, I would suggest that in that small a tank the ammonia will build up quite quickly, so maybe do 25% water changes 2/3 times a week and a full change once a week. The only downside to having to do water changes too often is that it increases stress.

I haven't a clue what lines by the eyes are?? Horizontal lines which extend the length of the body are stress stripes.

Andy

Thanks, Andy!

Yes, we have a wood furnace so it goes out around four or five in the morning, and her water gets a bit cold. But it's not as bad as what my other two bettas had to go through (I was a newbie, and the tank was great to me then ) It hasn't reached refrigerator temperature, since my room keeps warm on that end. My tank is plastic, so I'm hoping for that glass one so I can get my heater I've been unable to find one for plastic tanks as tiny as this one.

I was afraid water changes would cause her stress I've been doing a complete change weekly, or when those stripes appear, which seem to appear before the week's over.

Is that horizontal stripes when you're looking down at her, or at her side?

Sides

 

[tibby25731]

You can put a tiny 25w heater into a plastic tank quite safely, they come with sucker cups and these hold them away from the sides of the tank. She will be much happier

 

[Syphoniera]

She's a very beautiful girl, and will get more beautiful with a steady temp. of around 80 F.
Seriously, it can make a major difference to their colour, which shows how much difference it makes.

Speaking as a NON-expert:
The bubbles apparently can pose a hazard, or so I've heard, but there doesn't seem to be much you can do about that.
Not while she's in a small tank getting very large water changes, anyway.
Do you let the water stand overnight with dechlor in?
Because I tend to see bubbles like that only when starting a new tank and dumping in water (dechlor added, of course, so as not to harm plants) direct from the tap, since nobody's in or will be in for some time and it'll be run through charcoal...

Dug for an example, and this looks OK:
http/www.thefunplace.com/house/pets/fish03.html

... Another concern with tap water is dissolved oxygen. To check if your water has a lot of dissolved oxygen, fill a big container (like a flower vase) with water straight from the tap. Place your hand in the water and hold it there. Does your hand get covered with tiny air bubbles? If your water is bubbly, let it age overnight in a bucket, or those little bubbles can stick to the gills of the fish and hurt them. Your faucet aerator can also be the culprit of this problem. Try taking the end of the faucet off and see if the bubbles are still a problem. If you don't want to take your faucet apart, test the water from the hose. ...

There are flakes, (like Nutrafin Max Betta Food which comes with freeze-dried bloodworms mixed in,) which are supposedly designed for bettas - the funny-looking poop from flake feeding may come from a high grain content, something fish can't digest, and you're right not to want to feed anything having such an effect.
A good fish food shouldn't have grain at all, but just try finding any on your LFS shelves...

Do you pre-soak her pellets at all?
Because they may be a little large for her, (bettas will repeatedly spit out, catch and 'play with' large pieces of food in trying to break them down) and feeding too many dry pellets can result in these causing problems due to absorbing moisture after being swallowed and swelling in her stomach.

Do you feed her several little bite-sized fragments of pea as a meal weekly?
Many of us do, both because Bettas almost invariably love them and because they help clear out the system and prevent constipation.
Bettas need variety in their diet, just as we do, so a bit of thawed, frozen bloodworm or other such moist frozen/live food once or twice a week would be a good thing as well.

Re the stripes - I can only speak from a very minor personal experience, but got some time ago a little girl with health issues who had extreme variation in striping and colouration for a long time, and who had stripes right through her eyes as well.
Looked cool but wasn't a good sign...
Now, although still having persistent problems including fin blackening, she's gradually become a lovely irridescent green which is also beginning to extend into her deep red (where not still blackened) fins, with no more striping apparent.
Especially since this becomes more apparent both during water changes and toward the end of a week of ammonia build-up, I'd say, bad sign in yours as well.
If you haven't got a syphon, and buckets of some type, I'd suggest you get them - you'll need them for partial water changes to get the poop off the bottom as well as to remove ammonia-tainted water in order to add fresh.
And since she responds strongly to full water changes, perhaps several weekly partials syphoned out would be easier on her, although we'll have to see what the experts say about that.

Luckily, you've already received good advice both regarding water change frequency and heater addition from people who ARE experts, so hopefully big improvements will soon be seen.
And Christmas is coming, so I hope you get an early present of a nice 5 or 10 gallon tank for your lovely new girl.
She really is gorgeous, and has an unusual and very nice name, too.
Wish I had a friend like yours...

 

[liz2]

beautiful little girl you have there.
She gets stressed so her stripes go across her body. Even one of my juvie males does this it is sort of a "leave me alone" reaction. When you see stripes going down her body she is looking for a boyfriend!