Hello again, further to my last topic I would just like to reiterate that Bettaboy is not sick, he is not constipated and as far as I can tell both he and 'Friendly' are just fine. Here are some pictures we took tonight - judge for yourselves.

And another pic.

And another.

Here is a picture of the food we use. It's called HBH Betta Bites. The large pellet is a small goldfish pellet for size comparison. The 10 small specks are the Betta Bites, as you can see 10 of these would be probably be equivilant to the small goldfish pellet. Bettaboy can eat 10 of these in about 30 seconds.

Now if you guys tell me that he is overweight I will cut back by another 10 Bites a day and see how he goes.

I must say I appreciate the concern that members showed in their previous replies but I don't appreciate the rudeness of SOME members who seemed to have nothing better to do than reply to my topic over and over and over and over and over again.

For the record I have 2 bettas, 2 white clouds, 2 zebras and and 23 goldfish (8 tanks in all). I am not an ignoramous nor am I trying to antagonis members with this post.

About a month a go I posted that Bettaboy was eating 45 Betta Bites p/day. I followed the advice of members and cut down by around 40%. My post on Bettaboys diet was a follow-up and I did not expect to get slam-dunked or told that my post was "a joke".

Lets play nice, shall we?

Cheers! Annette

hi annette

let me say up front that your bettaboy is a very handsome fish. i really like his finnage and coloring, very regal looking.

well, at first glance, he doesnt seem to be overweight. however, it would take a clearer more close-up picture to be able to really tell. and those betta bites seem to be pretty darn small, just as you described them. one of the best ways to tell if you are indeed feeding too much is to look at their tummies after a feeding. there should be a very slight bulge (very slight) afterwards. in fact, i think that it should almost be unnoticeable. thats what ive been reading on some of the better caresheets online, anyway.

like i posted in your other query, bettas can easily become constipated if fed too much. my little guy, willie, can attest to that. even though you may not have had any probs as of yet, the danger is still there, trust me. honestly, i would go ahead and cut down a bit more of his intake and soak his food for a minute before feeding. as with any kind of fish, its better to feed less than more. that is a constant that ive found on every caresheet that ive ever read about any fish. aslo, a day of fasting cant hurt.

i agree that you seem to have attracted too much negativity from your other post about bettaboy. i think that it takes a certain amount of compassion to give people advice without creating a ruckus. i hope that you dont harbor any hard feelings.

could you get a better, closer pic by chance?

post back soon

in agreement that those bites are small, however I would be curious to know what the package says as to how much you should feed your fish.. I thought that your betta's pictures were quite silhoutted and it was difficult to truly see what his size is, in agreement with Toothless that closer picture would be helpful..

I feed my boys 2 Hikari pellets morning and evening and they fairly snatch them up and I am sure they would eat more, but my concern is also for the waste building up in their 2 1/2 gallon tanks even though I change part of the water every day as well as 100% once a week. But maybe you have Bettaboy in a big cycled tank and don't have to be as concerned about that.

Great pictures! it was just alittle dark for me to see
but so far what i could see is a lovely betta.
Good luck with him!

ya, it is really difficult to tell

I don't know if I can get clearer pictures, those ones were taken on a new-fangled mobile phone.

The feeding instructions for HBH Betta Bites state 6-8 bites twice a day (16), how about a compromise and I'll drop down to 20 p/day?

I'm glad you guys understand, I was getting a bit upset with comparisons such as "a whole bag of dog food". I know that particular reply wasn't having a dig, they just couldn't comprehend 30 p/day. Do they have this type of food in the U.S?

Anyway, thanks for all your compliments to Bettaboy, when we get our camera working again we'll try for a better shot.

Cheers!

PS. Toothless, I hope your little fella gets better soon. It sounds dreadful, thanks for the warning.

PPSS. BTW, I'm no longer toothless with my front tooth, I got a temporary and will soon get a crown. Thats not to say I'm missing a few other teeth as well but fortunately they are not so obvious.

that sounds like a good compromise to me.

i know exactly how you feel. i literally have to restrain my self from over feeding any of my fish. they just look so cute when they do their "feed me" dance.

yep, we got those here in the us. in fact, ive been looking for a souce of them locally cause i want to switch to the moist type food. that way theres not much swelling of it in their intestines.

i eagerly await your pics. he really is a looker!

Sixlittlefish, I forgot to add in my last reply that I have a 6 gallon with a filter and 2 Bettas.

Before I added the filter there was a build-up of partially decomposed waste in the pebbles. It was actually quite yucky, white and stringy sort of. The tank was new and hadn't cycled.

Anyway, I'll run him on his new diet of 7 Bites three times a day, WOW, that's actually less than half of his 45 p/day. But fish are piggies and although I stood on my soapbox earlier in this thread I must admit to being a newbie to Bettas.

Hey, but that's what this forum is all about isn't it? Sharing ideas and experiences and hopefully learning something along the way.

Cheers!

you are so right, thats exactly what this forum is for! good luck with your little guy!

paul

Hiya fishmerized,

Bettaboy is gorgeous... looks an awful lot like my betta, Gary. Hope he stays healthy and happy!

Cutting back to 20 a day sounds good to me.

I would aim for 16 in the near future though. I would say every week give him 1 less until he is only getting 16 or 17.

I wish you and him good luck! I am also happy to see that you are such a great sport, Annette!

I only feed my bettas 5-8 pellets, once a day, and I also feed them HBH pellets. Somtimes I can't even feed them that everyday, because it doesn't take much for the little guys stomach to get big and blocked up. Giving them less won't hurt them in any way, and feeding them sparingly is also not so harmful due to that their digestive track is small, and slow(at least my 3 bettas all have slow digestive tracks)....so the food sticks with them a bit. If you need further proof, here is a picture of betta Inferno, that I have only had for about 2 months(if even that). I typically don't feed him more than once a day unless I give him a treat.....but he has gotten completely huge on just the small amount I give him daily.(I measured him today, not including his tail, at about 1 and 3/4 inches body length!) Good luck.

Wow Erica he is Flame's twin!

Cool Lachfa!! Maybe they're from the same litter, no?? That lil' guy has been through quite a bit in the few months I have had him.... during a tank cleaning a last month, he got very startled and severely ripped his tail in all of the excitement on one of the plants. It is just now starting to look "back to normal". At least he is healthy and still growing strong!!

Inferno is a real stunner! I've never seen one with such strong colouring before. Yep, he is a big fish, he has the same body shape as Bettaboy. So you only feed him 5-8 p/day? That's interesting - he certainly doesn't look starved.

Actually, I'm only feeding Bettaboy twice a day now instead of three times. He is down to 20 p/day but I'll reduce it to 16 over this week (which is maximum recommended).

Just a question, what type of accommodation does Inferno have and how active is he?

Cheers! Annette

Right now, Inferno is in a 2.5 gallon that is split...the other half is soon to be occupied by either wednesday or thursday.(( I do not use a filter, I know some do, but I have had extremely bad luck with filters and bettas, even sponge filter have given me a hard time. However, I am not saying to stop using a filter if you do already, it's just that filterless has worked better for me)) We just bought him this tank last weekend, and before that he was in a smaller desktop tank by himself...although I am not sure of the water capacity(I never measured it and it didn't tell me when I bought it ) We did move him out of the tank, because he had been growing so much and, yes, started to slow down and act like he was cramped(he also slowed down on his bubble nests which was very odd). He is now very active again, swimming about and what not, constantly building bubble nests that are extremely huge, and seems to always be on the go except for when he feels the need to nap.

Here is a picture of my other two bettas in their tank....Inferno is in the same kind of tank now, but I don't have a picture of it.

nice betta fishmerised,
i just have to say thank you toothless for your bit about their "feed me dance" that tickled me for about 10mins.

Edjeff that smaller tank is a one gallon I have Indi in one like it on my desk at work. Flame is in the same brand of tank only it is the 5 gallon version. I just found an internal filter for it - the top does not come off to hand a filter from so I had to find something with suction cups to hang on the side. I just put it in yesterday so far so good. I feed him 3 pellets (the bigger ones) in the morning, then a very small amount of bloodworms or some treat in the evening. He is identical to Inferno, down to the little blew freckles. I saw another one like him when I went to the LFS the other day - maybe that is the "new color".

Annette,I would also like to say that your betta is a real looker,and that in the long run he will be much better off as you lesson his intake.--I too am also glad that you didn't take the remarks to heart,and let it chase you away.The one thing that we can only try to remember is that we all love and have passion when it comes to our fish-They really do care about your fish-they sometimes let passion show you it in the negative ways...Being rude,or talking down to people certainly will not teach people any good lesson. We all need to be a little more patient and open. JMO...... Good luck with your betta!

Lachfa...intresting. The one I bought came with a filter, that hung off of the side, the small desktop version that is...we are talking about it being the 1 gallon right?? The one I posted in the picture is a 2.5 g *...it's too early, I just woke up and nothing makes sense yet* ( I think I have seen some in my LFS that are sold with and without the filter.)With my smal 1g version, I constanly had to put panty hose or something else of that nature over the intake valve, because my bettas would always seem to get their tails sucked up into the intake, and then the worst would happen, and they would badly rip their tails. :angry: Sometimes even if the intake valve had been covered and the little guy got too close, even with sponge filters I have had in other tanks, it still caused damage. It had me baffled for a while.... so when Inferno got his tail injured a month ago, I decide that it was the last straw and the end of me in the filter market with bettas.

On a brighter note, I'm glad to hear yours is working out okay!! I can't help but wonder if some certain colors of bettas have specific color variations. For example, the red betta that have blue shine through when under bright light. I have also noticed on many dark navy blue bettas that when under bright light they seem to have a deep lavender come through. I don't know....maybe it's just me and I'm weird!!

Maybe they make a 1 gal and a 2.5 that look alike! Mine came with an UGF - he didn't like it at all - too much movement. I don't use a filter in the 1 gal, I put the internal one in the 5 gal - which also came with an UGF that I don't use.

Sound like they must have several different sizes of that tank. Both 2.5gls that I have bought both came with filters that hang off of the side of the tank(I think they are miniature whisper filters). The lids come off the top of the tank so you can disperse the filter in the tank. One of them came from my LFS...the other one came from Petsmart....I did also see the 5g version there!!

--Not a big fan of UGF either!

I bought the 5 gallon used and the 1 gallon came from WM. I think someone else on here has the 5 gallons (maybe Devs). They make great betta tanks!

Yep....I have lots of five gal/ tanks now...I think they clone theirselves when I go to bed,and thats why I'm constantly buying bettas to fill them up with!!! lol---I think my 2.5 colored top bowfronts were the one's that came with whisper hang-over filters.Some of my fives came with ugf. set-up.Don't think I used any of the set-ups that came with them for whatever reasons.

Hey, that picture was great - what a cute tank.

Just reading everybodies posts is interesting about the different tanks they use, etc. You guys in the U.S are spoilt for choice, I've never seen those type of tanks in Oz, I guess the Betta craze is just kicking off over here.

As for filters, I don't think they are necessary for Bettas. I use a charcoal/sponge filter in the 6 gallon because the water was always cloudy and the waste wasn't decomposing properly. (Probably because I feed them too much )
As it is a big tank I didn't want to do 100% water changes each week and wanted it to cycle. All seems to be going nicely now.

BTW the Bettas don't seem to mind the filter. The air bubbles don't really create a current they only disturb the surface.

YaY we're all happy again!! (byGarion)