Upgraded my male halfmoon betta's aquarium.

[Crabber85]

I've got two male betta's one is a blue crown tail named Forsyth and Neptune who is a blue half moon.

Forsyth cost me about seven dollars and Neptune was fourteen dollars because he is a moon tail variant and very beautiful.

Anyway I got Neptune back in June or so and have had him in a 1.5 gallon acrylic corner aquarium with filtration but knowing that he needed more space I went ahead today and bit the bullet and moved him over to a 3.5 gallon acrylic bow-front aquarium that I had stored for the upcoming move but with how things have been getting delayed moving wise I could not wait to move him to the bigger aquarium any longer.

He now has a 100 watt heater which is set to 80o F and he is happier than ever so I'm glad I went ahead and moved him because he was beginning to act a little cramped in the much smaller 1.5 gallon temp aquarium he'd been in.

Forsyth is in a 5.5 gallon glass aquarium complete with heat, filtration and a LED lighted hood and I've had him since April.

Both get fed one pellet per night and the pellet is soaked in dechlorinated water for five minutes before being given to them this is done to allow the pellet to swell up to its full size because they are dehydrated they will quickly take on nearly double their weight in moisture so if the fish eats them before they are soaked the pellets have a tendency to swell up in their stomach causing bloat and intestinal impactions.

I've never fed cooked peas to any of my betta's because contrary to popular belief their digestive systems are not equipped to handle the roughage which can actually make the fish sick or sicker.

I used to alternate between the pelleted food and blood worms feeding one every other day but the blood worms began to cause other issues with my fish so I stopped and I still do a fasting day which is where you skip feeding the fish one day out of the week to allow their digestive systems a break this practice of fasting the fish helps to reduce their chances of developing bloat.

I also dose their water with rock salt this helps to cut down on infections and illnesses like Ich and Fin Rot, basically if you want to have healthy betta's you need to dose a newly setup aquarium with one table spoon of rock salt or fresh water aquarium salt per five gallons and then when you do your weekly water changes add about one teaspoon of salt per gallon of removed water I prefer putting the salt into the bucket that I use to refill my aquariums because I know how much water the bucket holds I can just add the necessary amount of salt to it simplifying the process a little bit.

Blue betta's will be healthier than any other color because they utilize the beta-carotene thats used in most fish foods to strengthen their immune systems unlike the red, yellow, orange betta's who will unfortunately only use the color enhancer to make their colors brighter.

Apparently since Blue betta's cant utilize the beta-carotene for color enhancing purposes they instead have the ability to use it in a much better way.

Keeping the betta's aquarium water dosed with either rock salt or fresh water aquarium salt and making sure the water temp stays at eighty degrees makes the water inhospitable to most harmful bacteria and infectious diseases because they don't grow well at that certain temp and a lot of them are effected even further by the presence of salt which seems to disrupt their ability to propagate.

[mool]

It's nice to see someone properly taking care of their bettas. Kudos.

The only thing I disagree with is the prophylactic dosing with salt. I have used salt many times to treat illnesses in fresh water fish but I quit using it prophylactically a long time ago.

Here's why. I was using salt in my FW aquariums regularly when I got a bug in the tank (ick). The ick took hold even though the water had a TBS/5 gals of salt. I was stuck when it came to treating the tank without harsh chemicals. I tried upping the temp and adding more salt, but it was too much salt and heat for the fish and they started dying off. I did a series of water changes to dilute the salt and lower the temp. This caused some more fish to die off. I had to resort to using a commercial ick treatment which caused even more fish to die. It wasn't a betta tank, it was a 75 gallon community fish tank. I lost most of my fish and stained everything blue.

Had I not put salt in the tank to begin with, I could have used it and heat to kill off the ick.

Just my .02

[wodesorel]

I'm with mool. They are freshwater fish. They are not found in brackish waters in the wild, and using any amount of salt creates a very unnatural situation for them.

Although heat alone kills ick, no need for salt or meds. I have kuhlis that can't handle any kind of medication. I nearly killed them using half-strength PraziPro a few years back! Last time I had an ick outbreak in that tank from new additions, I just upped the heat (slowly) to the 86 and did twice daily gravel vacs with large water changes. Two weeks of that and it was gone for good. Took lots of elbow grease and I hated them for a while afterwards, but no lost fish.

[Crabber85]

I've done the no salt method for years before I learned through lots of research that it should be done for newly purchased betta's as that is when they are most likely to be sick from poor store conditions and I have seen betta's being kept in some really nasty water in those little cups which I absolutely hate, PetSense a new chain pet store just opened a branch in my town and they sell fifteen and twenty dollar betta's and lost them all because they let the water go toxic which is why I refuse to buy anything from them because their fish care is so horrendous.

Being that the only places I have available to me that sell the more expensive types of betta like half-moon, double moon and delta tail usually keep the fish in less than adequate conditions they are typically already effected with some sort of parasite which is why I chose to do the salt method its more for when the fish is brand new and needs all the help it can get.

Typically I only dose the water for the first month's worth of water changes and then by that point the infections are usually cleared up and then I leave the salt out of future water changes, I've been keeping fish for the better part of two decades and I never do anything without doing the research first.lol

Reading back on my first post I see where I should have elaborated further as the way I left it I made it sound like I'm always putting salt back in the water with every water change when that is the exact opposite of what I actually do.

I appreciate your opinions as its always nice to get insight from others who have experience in the same fields and I'll be the first to admit even though I sound like a know it all I really don't and need outside prospective to keep me on my toes.