Hi,
I am new to this site, new to tropical fish keeping and new to the joys of sharing my space with a Betta, so please excuse me if I waffle on a lot - I'm quite excited hehe.
On Saturday I picked up a beautiful red Betta (who is yet to be named), 5 Harlequins and 4 Corys after spending the last 2 months watching videos on YouTube and dreaming about having my own Betta. He is quite small, I'm hoping that means that he's young, and he lives in a 12.6 gallon tank with his tank mates. The tank is an Interpet Fish Pod and it currently has gravel, lots of live plants and a bridge and a large urn (I also have some mopani wood that I'm soaking everyday in hot water, I hope to put it in next week), I have also put a hoop in for them to swim through (which my Betta did for the first time this morning), have ordered some ping pong balls to play with my Betta with and am waiting for some sand (for my Corys) and some moss balls to arrive. My Betta has already learned to chase my finger when I open the tank to feed them, so I get him to swim a couple of laps around the tank and through the long grass and then feed him and he knows me when I go to the front of the tank which is so lovely.All of my fish seem very bright (apart from one Harlequin who seems a little faded today - the other 4 are a healthy colour) and active, my Betta plays with the other fish (not aggressively but he copies what they are doing) and he also plays at swimming in and out of the gaps where the heater is attached to the side of the tank.
There are just a couple of things that make me wonder though:
1) Today my Betta ate his food and then spat it back out - When I bought him I wanted to make sure he would eat the food I have so I bought the same flake food he was eating at the fish shop and also some pellets and I have been feeding him tiny amounts twice a day one flakes and one pellets to change the food over(I got pellets so that they sink for my Harlequins and Corys), I have also bought a frozen selection pack of shrimp, blood worms etc as treats for them (yesterday I fed them 1/5 of a cube of shrimp) - I was wondering why he spat his food out? Is he just full or not enjoying it?
2) I've noticed that he enjoys playing in the current of the filter, I have it on the lowest setting and it's pointed towards the back of the tank to break up the flow a bit as I read Bettas don't like strong currents and instead of swimming in the rest of the tank he goes and plays where the water flow is - is this ok for him?
Thank-you for your time, I hope I didn't talk too much.
Athreal
I am new to this site, new to tropical fish keeping and new to the joys of sharing my space with a Betta, so please excuse me if I waffle on a lot - I'm quite excited hehe.
On Saturday I picked up a beautiful red Betta (who is yet to be named), 5 Harlequins and 4 Corys after spending the last 2 months watching videos on YouTube and dreaming about having my own Betta. He is quite small, I'm hoping that means that he's young, and he lives in a 12.6 gallon tank with his tank mates. The tank is an Interpet Fish Pod and it currently has gravel, lots of live plants and a bridge and a large urn (I also have some mopani wood that I'm soaking everyday in hot water, I hope to put it in next week), I have also put a hoop in for them to swim through (which my Betta did for the first time this morning), have ordered some ping pong balls to play with my Betta with and am waiting for some sand (for my Corys) and some moss balls to arrive. My Betta has already learned to chase my finger when I open the tank to feed them, so I get him to swim a couple of laps around the tank and through the long grass and then feed him and he knows me when I go to the front of the tank which is so lovely.All of my fish seem very bright (apart from one Harlequin who seems a little faded today - the other 4 are a healthy colour) and active, my Betta plays with the other fish (not aggressively but he copies what they are doing) and he also plays at swimming in and out of the gaps where the heater is attached to the side of the tank.
There are just a couple of things that make me wonder though:
1) Today my Betta ate his food and then spat it back out - When I bought him I wanted to make sure he would eat the food I have so I bought the same flake food he was eating at the fish shop and also some pellets and I have been feeding him tiny amounts twice a day one flakes and one pellets to change the food over(I got pellets so that they sink for my Harlequins and Corys), I have also bought a frozen selection pack of shrimp, blood worms etc as treats for them (yesterday I fed them 1/5 of a cube of shrimp) - I was wondering why he spat his food out? Is he just full or not enjoying it?
2) I've noticed that he enjoys playing in the current of the filter, I have it on the lowest setting and it's pointed towards the back of the tank to break up the flow a bit as I read Bettas don't like strong currents and instead of swimming in the rest of the tank he goes and plays where the water flow is - is this ok for him?
Thank-you for your time, I hope I didn't talk too much.
Athreal