New Betta

[juliehainsworth]

I bought my male betta about a week and a half ago from my local pet shop! It was hard to decide on which one to go for as they had quite a few some looked happy others not so happy! In the end we settled on one that was hiding behind a filter in with some glowlights! Turns out he has a twin tail he is blue with red on the edges of his fins! Since getting him home he is more or less always out and about flaring his fins up here and there! His colours have also got brighter over the last few days and he readily accepts food from my fingers.

My main concern is what to look out for in him as previously (approx 10yrs ago) I have had two bettas (at different times) which never lasted more than a week! I do not know why my previous attempts to keeping a betta failed but I would like to make sure that I don't loose this one in the near future as he is quite a character. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of him at the moment but I will hopefully have some soon so that you can all see and give your opinions on him.

 

[liz2]

He definitely sounds happy. I am sure your friends on here will reply to your posting later on and give you tips etc. I am not that experienced still learning!

 

[catxx]

how did you keep your ones 10 years ago?
what kind of tanks did you keep them in then and now?
there are a lot of mis-conceptions about how to keep bettas.

he sounds like a beauty! pics soon please!!

 

[juliehainsworth]

They were kept in my old 4ft community tank with glowlights, possibly neons can't remember if I had them when I had betta's as not fond of neons, a common plec, possibly angels as my mum had a pair but they kept biting off the heads of my young baby platies and guppies that I had grown on to 1cm so they had to go, and of course the parent fish! Thats all I can remember having but probably did have more at the time oh also was given a silver dollar too.

I didnt really keep up on the water changes though when I was younger think I ended up doing them once a month instead of at least once a week!

I will try and get a pic sometime this week he just wont stay still long enough for me got some showing his nice colours but they're very blurry. Also is it normal for them to seem fatter around the head area?

 

[catxx]

how do you mean fatter around the head area?
do you mean his tummy is fat? if so, stop feeding for a day, give him some pea, he probably just needs a good poop!

hmm. maybe your previous bettas just couldn't keep up with the large community tank, trying to patrol too much with hefty fins.
they definately don't go well with other larger aggressive fish (angels), and the neons may have harrassed, especially if they were put straight into that tank.

 

[juliehainsworth]

just behind his head area! Good point he may just need a poo come to think of it I've never seen him go to the bathroom unlike most of the others in the tank! I'll try him with a bit of pea tonight when I get in maybe he's over indulged himself on the bloodworm recently!

Thank you for your advice