How hardy are Bettas?

[Squiggle]

Hahaha, yeah they were my first too & if you don't have the room the a couple of spawns of 300-400 fry can be a bit much, lol

[ineke]

I keep looking at my empty cubes and think I want a few Bettas again. This thread is not helping!

Edited February 3, 2015 by ineke

[OzShrimp]

If i could i would :( 

[ineke]

I would love to have one try at breeding them , I have the room and enough spare heaters and pumps but have never tried to breed them. My main concern is they would become another addiction! I also can't seem to find any local breeders to get a nice type and a bit of extra info - I have done a few searches but I haven't been lucky yet. I'm probably not trying hard enough because I haven't been quite game enough to tell Alan what I want to do!!!!

[Squiggle]

Just in case you are interested, I know good quality breeders all over the country & I could put you in touch with any of them,

[ineke]

Thanks Jay. The only one I can find is at Woodville. - they have just advertised on gumtree but they are selling youngsters and not showing what they are. I still haven't told Al that I want some :)

[Squiggle]

I know a guy in SA who breeds some stunners, I could give him a yo for ya if you're keen.

[inverted]

What are you looking at price wise for a top quality betta?

[Squiggle]

Anywhere from $20-$60 depending on the breeder/seller

[kizshrimp]

Wow Squiggle, they're nice reds! Almost no blue in them, good work. 

[ineke]

Got my tank setup - just letting it settle for a few days then will decide what I want ! Still haven't told Al!

[inverted]

Lol......tell him it's a big shrimp

[ineke]

LOL he is ok about my shrimp keeping its just I gave away heaps of fish to get my shrimp including a large group of Bettas.

[sdlTBfanUK]

On 1/5/2015 at 10:45 AM, Morgan said:

Ineke I have a funny story about bettas and shrimp. Last time I had tanks I had a few bettas and some cherries. I was under the impression that bettas would definitely eat shrimp, so I kept them separated. (They certainly chowed down on my ramshorns!). Anyway, I was trying to breed my cherries for stronger colour and reluctantly decided that culling the cherries that were clear would best be done by feeding them to the bettas. I know a lot of breeders feed their fish culls to oscars etc.

 

So I braced myself and put the clearest in with one of my betta males, and hurried away so I didn't have to watch the horrifying scene unfold. When I was doing my nightly check on my tanks, I saw the cherry happily feeding on the moss and the betta ignoring it completely. They lived together after that. So much for culling! The whole process was so distressing I decided I didn't have the heart for that type of culling anyway.

 

I used to feed mine wrigglers and daphnia, they loved it. You're right about their personalities, they do learn to recognise different humans and they can be so engaging.

I had the same experience with the shrimps. I fished out red cherries which were reverting to wild (brown/clear colour) and put them in with the betta as food for the betta and they lived happily together and the shrimps even bred, but as they were so well camouflaged/dull colour most seemed to survive and wandered around the tank during daytime etc.

When I first got the betta I put a very red shrimp in there and the fish soon went after it so I fished it out after a couple of days as it hid all the time.

IF I do get another betta I will put reverting to wild colour in with it as before definitely.

Simon