# How Did you get into the betta world?



## meganlbetta (Nov 25, 2012)

I got into the betta world by getting one of those tiny tanks for bettas because they dont need a lot of space... Stupid people. Now im getting ideas where to place a big tank with lots of plants so I can get more... muahahah


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## LeoTheLakerBetta (Oct 12, 2012)

Ha. One day my dad went to get a furniture stand off of Craigslist and he called me a little later and asked me if I wanted a free fish. I had never had any pets before that so I was very surprised but I said yes! It was my first betta and he was a royal blue veiltail that lived in a tiny bowl. But I gave him a nice ten gallon after some research


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## hynesh9792 (Nov 4, 2012)

My husband and I were new fish owners and we were buying neon tetras when I noticed a large purple fish with a long flowy tail that was following me and wiggling around. I said "I have to have him,he wants to come home with me, look he likes me!" I knew NOTHING about bettas NOTHING. I named him Dexter

The first day I put him in teh 20 gallon with our tetras and glofish (which I was told was okay) and he was following me and would swim up to me. I was so excited and shocked that he was so smart. (again, knew nothing about bettas lol). 2 days later he was just lethargic. He didn't eat since I bought him, stopped coming to teh surface, and eventually died within a week along with most of our other fish =( I was so upset. A couple weeks later, my husband had surprised me with my betta baby who I named Dexter Junior but now I just call him Junior. After coming here, I know A LOT more about these fish =) I love Junior!


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I found a 2.5 gallon mini bow at a 2nd hand store. I got sick of waiting for a petco employee tohelp me so I helped myself to a doubletale male betta


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## twolovers101 (Sep 17, 2012)

My mom brought home a betta in a vase when I was about 10 or so... we quickly figured out that they needed pellets and open air, so we threw out the plant that came with it (a peace lilly that was poisonous to the cat anyway) and I took care of it... can't say I was a good owner, but the little blue VT we named Mel lasted 3 years I changed 100% of his water once a week in that vase until we got a 10 gallon tank. 

Set that up with (don't kill me, I was a kid) 3 neons, a gourami (maybe 2) an albino cory and an algae eater. We didn't know ANYTHING about fish keeping 12 years ago... that set up worked out for about a year, and then my memory cuts out and I haven't had fish since 

Well.. Until last spring when a friend of mine said she was "waiting" for her fish to die because she didn't want him any more. So being the kind person I am, I took him off her hands... he's still around but boy I knew nothing then either!! I've learned so much since joining this forum. Anyhow... that's how it all began, and now I'm the best fish keeper I know haha!


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## asukabetta (Oct 2, 2012)

my significant other showed them to me when we went to Petco, I had never been to a big pet shop before, since my country they dont have any and we went to stare at puppies and they caught my eye.

I never heard or seen bettas before but for some reason I knew they were the pet for me.

So when I came back to spain, i looked for bettas and found them  I have 4 now


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

My dad used to have a salt and fresh water tank along with goldfish pond...he decided he would buy my sister and I each a betta since they were easy care and it would teach us that pet care wasnt that easy. This was like 15 years ago and he didn't know much about bettas at the time so we had them in 1 gallon gold fish bowls and they didn't last very long. But my sister and I thought they were the coolest fish ever so he would buy them for us once in a while throughout the years, upgrading the spaces they lived in as time went on too
For the past 3-4 years ive been keeping at least one in my room non stop


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

Back around when I first started really getting into fish keeping, I walked into our local craft store for something or another....and noticed they had a whole end-cap full of little blue and red bettas in little bowls of various sizes(all less then a gallon). I had always seen the seemingly boring little still fish in vases and whatnot as class pets throughout my childhood and never really gave them much thought until that day. I didn't know much about bettas at the time either, but I was learning and had heard that they could be kept in larger community tanks(which I had been attempting to build at the time) and had enough sense to figure that those poor little bowls weren't large enough for anything to really live happily, so I picked up my favorite betta and brought him home.









I immediately noticed how curious and inquisitive little Sasuke was, much different then the bettas I remembered and most of the fish I had had in the past. He was really so curious about what I was doing and where I was.......it was absolutely fascinating. 
A few months of learning and research, some fin rot, and several tanks and bowls later.....I was setting up a divided 10 gallon and preparing my old 20 long for a Sorority on my 18th birthday. It was aaaaaaaaaall downhill from there. xD


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## nel3 (May 29, 2011)

my brother won a betta from a friend's wedding banquet through a best name contest. each table had a betta and each table's occupants chose a name for the ones on their own table. my brother is more of a dog person so he gave it to me. i found it to be a unexpected surprise as i never had fish but id never have my current pets if he didnt get that betta in the first place.


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## fgradowski (Nov 27, 2012)

I went away for college and left two dogs and a cat back home. I was having trouble making friends and I needed something to take care of/occupy my time with. The Petco was a 10 minute walk from my dorm. One day I went in there. Just for fun. I stood by the bettas for a good 15 minutes. I picked Algernon out and a tank and plant along with some bloodworms. This was only a month ago. Yesterday I went back to the Petco and upgraded him to a 3 gallon tank and added a real plant and a rock structure. Now I just want more! But I don't know if I could handle two while living in a dorm room. But it's just SO tempting! I also feel the need to build a natural plant tank. I'm totally addicted now.


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## thisismethere (Oct 16, 2012)

My daughter wanted a gold fish for her birthday. We went in to petco and picked out the fancy goldfish and a 2.5 gal tank and gravel and decoration,water conditioner and fish flakes.(An employee helped us with all our choices) We go to the counter to pay and the check out girl says that tank is not big enough for that gold fish.(ughhh...the guy helping us didn't say anything about the size of the tank??) And so starts my adventure. We had been there a while and just took what we picked out home. A day or two later we decided to get a bigger tank for the gold fish. Now I have a perfectly good 2.5 and nothing in it. Mommy(that's me)wants a betta fish!! =) So I got Fin a white half moon. The gold fish has since passed and now Fin gets a 6.5 gal all to himself. =) Mommy is now hooked on betta fish. I just got a new boy a week ago named Lenox he is a twin tail half moon pastel. Lenox is in a 5 gal on my night stand and he is beautiful. I am thankful for this site and all the great info on it.


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## rubinthebetta (Oct 9, 2012)

When I was super little, I had a betta and I don't remember much about him but that he was fed cake and that was the end for him. Like I said, I was like, three or something. Then, years later, I was in a pet shop and saw the bettas. Then I remembered my first betta and then I simply decided to get my mom to get me a betta. A few weeks later, my aunt and uncle came and my hermit crab had died recently, so they drove me to a pet shop and I picked out Dirk. And now I'm hooked.


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## SinX7 (Oct 20, 2012)

It was two or three days after my birthday that my girlfriend says she got a surprise for me at home, I went home that day, and when I went into the room, I notice a bowl with a blue color thing it in. When I walk up to it, it was Prince Zuko swimming around! And that's how I got into Betta's. xD


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## Twixies (Nov 28, 2012)

My AP Enviornmental class was doing an experiment on ecosystems. My partner didn't want to keep the betta fish, so I decided to keep him. Kitkat was in a bottle with an elodea plant for like a month (poor thing), we did water testing every once in a while, that was the only interraction it got, I don't know how it survived without any food. Anyways, that's how I got my little Kitkat.


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## Leeniex (Aug 14, 2011)

My kid asked for a fish.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

I had a Betta as a young teenager and had been told I could keep him in a community tank. Well, I couldn't, so I put him in a 1 gallon with a very strong bubbler, and he sat there in the corner behind it away from the current all day everyday. I didn't know any better, I feel horrible about it now. At the time, the Bettas in a vase thing was hugely popular in my small town, so I had no idea how interactive they could be. (They were all stuck and sad in those containers with no food and very little air)

Fast forward many years later and my son wants a gold fish. We go to the pet store to look at them and I just can't bring myself to buy him one. Next thing we know, they are bringing out all of the Bettas that had just had their water changed and there is this gold and red colored Betta (turns out she had velvet) that my son just had to have. So we bought it along with a 1/2 gallon tank and no heater. It was supposed to be a Dragonscale male, but as time went by, we realized that not only was he not a dragonscale, but he also wasn't male. We upgraded her to a 5 gallon, where she is very happy and active. My husband convinced me that I needed another one and a few weeks ago, I heard of a cull and fell in love with a very vibrant multi-colored halfmoon. I paid to have him shipped here, and he is living in a nice 3 gallon tank.


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## ImStillLearning (Nov 23, 2012)

I never really thought too much of owning fish in general, and it wasn't until one of my young employees posted on Facebook that she needed someone to take her Betta Smurf as she was going to Ottawa for school, and I simply replied if there is no one that is willing to take him that she could use me as a last option... And here we are ten Bettas later...


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## hannah16 (Mar 3, 2011)

When I was maybe 10-12 my mom allowed me to get two bettas in a divided tank as we use to have LARGE 30-45 gallons and I wanted fish. Ever since I've been hooked.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

When I was in college, I got a betta. I don't remember what made me want to get one, but I do remember being a kid and seeing the bettas in Pet stores and feeling bad for them that they were in such tiny containers (at that time, it was a pet store in the mall and they kept them in these tiny glass bowls that were smaller than the cups they come in in most pet stores now). Anyway, fast forward about 12 years, and I bought a betta and a small tank for him. It was probably less than a half gallon. :-? He only lived about a month. So I went out and got another one, and got him a little bit bigger tank (still less than a gallon, tho). I had no idea they needed a heater, so he had no heater and I only changed his water when it started to look dirty- which was about 10-14 days. :shock: I thought that's what you were supposed to do. I had him for 3 and a half years, so I thought I did good.
Then this past spring, me and my mom went into Petco because she needed to get something for the cat, and I took a look at the bettas, and then I caught the betta bug again. I didn't buy one right then. I went home and looked for the tank I kept my last betta in but I couldn't find it.
Something made me wonder if you could keep female bettas together, so I started reading up on that, and that led me to read about proper betta care, and I was shocked to find out I had done it so wrong before! Anyway, I went out and bought a 5 gallon filtered tank, and was going to cycle it before I got a fish. Anyway, I went into Petco another time, and saw a fish I couldn't pass up (A metallic blue, HM chocolate betta), so I got him, and bought a temporary 1 gallon tank. I eventually ended up putting him in the 5 gallon and finishing the cycle with him in it. But then of course I saw how awesome they can really be when they have enough space, and I wanted to get more. So that led me to Shiny- a pink HMDT, and eventually I was drawn to females and I ended up with Lila- a super cute purple VT female. She jumped out of a small hole in the tank when I wasn't home, so she didn't make it. :-(
But a month or so later, I got Jasper- a green VT female (and now I make sure to block EVERY hole).
Now I'm planning on dividing a 10 gal. for the 3 of them so I only have to do one water change per week, instead of multiple, on different schedules because of my 3 different tank sizes. And I'm also planning a planted 50 gallon sorority/community tank! Bettas got me into other types of fish, too!


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## Catfish Billy (Jun 27, 2012)

I saw some amazing looking fish in my LFS called 'Siamese Fighting Fish'. I knew I had a spare 9/10 gallon tank so I started researching them. In fact, that's how I found this site.


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## Stark (Nov 15, 2012)

I've always thought they were pretty and my local coffee shop got one about 6 months ago that lives on the counter. He's so beautiful I got to thinking about it.

Then out of the blue we got flowers delivered in a pretty little bowl for a vase. So I commented that we needed a fish now that we had a bowl. I did a little research and realized it wouldn't be a suitable home, but by then I was pretty much convinced!

So I started working on my SO and before we knew it, we picked our our little guy, Stark! And got him a nicer home


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## LunaStars004 (Nov 26, 2012)

When I was a kid our family had two bettas... I loved looking at their tanks and pretty fins! Now I love bettas so much  they are adorable and each have their own personality!


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## fgradowski (Nov 27, 2012)

LunaStars004 said:


> When I was a kid our family had two bettas... I loved looking at their tanks and pretty fins! Now I love bettas so much  they are adorable and each have their own personality!


The personalities are what got me! My two boys are polar opposites! It's so fun!


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## Popoli (Nov 29, 2012)

Between my dorm mates, they have five leopard geckos and two axolotls, plus a handful of dogs that they have back at their hometowns. My mom and I tragically lost our cat about four years ago and ever since my mom has refused to let me get another pet (I'd love to have a hedgehog and a rat someday, but my mom thinks I'm crazy), so I suppose I was feeling a little left out when my roommates would gush about their animals. While on an outing to get crickets for the geckos, I found the shelf of bettas at the pet store. We were inches away from bringing home two bettas that night (and a tadpole to boot. We absolutely love animals over here...) but we decided to hold off for a couple weeks.
I'm glad we did since it gave me time to do the proper research. We visited a different pet store and I fell in love with Edgar, my VT. He reacted to me instantly and was the most active betta on the shelf. He's even more energetic these days, which makes me really happy. If things go well, I'd love to have a halfmoon boy as Edgar's neighbor by this summer.


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## psyduck (Nov 30, 2012)

My very first betta was about 8 or 9 years ago, when I was in my early teenage years. I saw a very pretty white and pink/purple fish in a little bitty container. He was beautiful so I talked my mother into letting me get a little tank (it was only 1 gallon) and I named him Cloud. He lasted about 3 years, and this was with no filter, no heater and 100% water changes. Don't hate me because of this, I was still a kid and didn't have access to the internet at the time so didn't know much about bettas (plus I had a mom who believed fish were, "just fish"). Now, when I get my next betta which will probably be next weak either I'll get a small sorority or a lone male for a 10 gallon tank with all the trimmings.


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## Jiirim (Aug 31, 2012)

I had gotten a baby black moor goldfish over the summer that I was raising in a 5gal. Once I realized he needed much more room, I moved him home into a 20 gal.
My mother saw I was a bit sad that I didn't have a pet to care for at school, so she surprised me by driving me to the LFS and letting me pick out two gorgeous HMs. One ended up being really sickly all the time and passed away due to dropsy, but the other is thriving! Now I tend to pick up/rescue. (right now I have four betta.. about to be five once I find my long desired plakat)


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## Neight (Oct 20, 2012)

I remember when I was young, the betta/peace lily craze was big. My grandmother bought herself one, one for my little cousin, and finally one for me. Leon, so named because I got him at Christmas and it was the letters of Noel rearrange, lasted only a few days. He was a beautiful green. I was intensely sad when he died, but my parents quickly found me Lester, a red betta who lasted for two years in a vase. Now, I am sixteen, and a huge pet person. Over the years I have had tanks of fish, including two goldfish and a tiny pleco, who all started off in bowls and I connived my way up to a tank. Recently having moved, I was looking for a water bottle for my gerbils in my basement and came across a fish bowl. I knew immediately I wanted more fish, and thus my research began. I signed up for this website just before I brought Timeaus, my first betta as a mature person home. He was a wonderfully personable boy, and started out in a one gallon bowl until I found two fully equiped twenty gallon tanks for twenty bucks and set up a community tank. The tank is going strong with my three platies, one balloon molly and Kaiser, my multicolor grizzle boy. I just bought Nero tonight, but I have no idea what his colors are. And so here I am.


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## majesticstorm (Dec 8, 2012)

When I was 8 or 9, I had goldfish and tropical fish, but "the fishes in the cups" always intrigued me. I wanted one, but was told that they would fight with other fishes, so I didn't get one. I got one for my friend as a birthday present, and she took pretty good care of it. When all of my fishes died a few months later, I decided to try a betta. My first one was a purple/white veiltail. As you could imagine, I didn't know enough about taking care of a betta (although I did NOT get those betta bowls, just a one gallon tank), and it died after a month. Didn't get another betta until my sophmore year of high school, had him for over a year, then he died of disease. I told myself to stop buying fish because I would just kill them. Freshman year at college, had the urge to get a betta again. Did a bunch of research, found this awesome forum, and here I am with a very happy betta.


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## horsyqueen (Nov 13, 2012)

I got a nano tank at the aquatics live. I wanted to have the theme as sorta asian spiritulism so I planned it out. It was a few months before the tank was set up. My first betta was Chi who lived in that tank and when he died Envy moved in.


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## stareyes (Oct 18, 2012)

When I was a kid we used to have goldfish and I loved them! After the last one of our original set died (lived around 10 years which was surprising since I am sure we weren't the best fish keepers) we had a string of bad luck that no matter what fish we bought it would be dead within a week (turns out our Petcetera had a disease issue in their tanks..). This caused us to get out of it and while I have missed it, my mom and I never found the time to set our tank back up. A couple years ago I moved a few hours away for school, leaving behind 2 cats which left me quite lonesome without a pet. My longtime boyfriend and I finally moved in together at the beginning of this year, and I got it in my head that I wanted fish again thinking they were make the perfect first pet for us. My friend had owned a betta fish previously and she had said they were super easy to take care of which worked perfectly for our crazy schedules. So off to the pet store we went where the lady helped us pick out everything we needed....even a 0.5 galleon fish bowl which is apparently really "spoiling" them...My boyfriend ended up naming him General Finn and while he was really friendly and active in his bowl, I felt like something wasn't right...especially when the lady had told us to only do a 25% water change once a week....well thank god I followed my instincts and did research!! I found this forum and 1.5 weeks later General Finn was upgraded to a 5 galleon tank and is spoiled rotten!! I'm already looking into getting a second one!!


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I've always been into fish, but back before it was so easy to have so much information available at your fingertips, you had to go by books or what the person at the fish store told you. 

Suffice to say we picked a bad store with a person only looking to make a sale and that completely turned me off the hobby for years. 

Then my dad went away, leaving his goldfish in my care. He had rinsed out their filter in tap water and when one died of dropsy I did a lot of googling and realised that I knew practically nothing about fish. So the goldfish got a much needed upgrade and stopped dying, and I got back into fish. 

I've always hated how they got kept in tiny, dirty bowls. So once I felt I knew enough, I went out and purchased my first betta. Unfortunately, I killed him through not cycling my tank properly (I didn't realise at the time that a pH below 6 is not conductive to growing beneficial bacteria). 

Now I keep essentially only wild species bettas. I like splendens and still have two, but they are so prone to randomly dying, or getting sick or damaging their fins or themselves that I have given up on them. Unless I bred my own or found one I really had to have, I couldn't see myself getting anymore.


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## princesskale (Jun 5, 2012)

When I was very young, around 7 or 8 years old, my mother got me a betta and a ghost shrimp. The "tank" was very small since she listened to the pet store employees, but we changed out the tank fairly often. I don't remember much past that. But I came home from school one day and my betta was dried up on the floor, and my ghost shrimp was gone. It upset me pretty badly.

I went into Petsmart one day and I saw the bettas just sitting there, on death row.. I almost put that in quotations, but that is literally what that shelf is for them.. I decided to get a betta, but I kept him in a 3 gallon with no heater. I did some research and set him up properly. I got a few more boys after that, then I found the forum. Now, I'm addicted.

I'm a sucker for cuties in need.. I even purchased a betta once, a red CT that I named Creedence - he was so "ugly" that the salesperson actually offered to give him to me for free!


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## BettaPirate (Nov 20, 2012)

My son loves fish and the Aquarium. Well that is too expensive to do everyday so I would take him to different pet stores to look at fish (he's 2) and after one week going EVERYDAY I decided to just get one to bring home so he can see a fish everyday. Once I brought Jack home and started building his happy tank I got the craving to have another! I am getting a free tank, grave, and heater in the next few days and then probably after Christmas will go pick out my new Betta friend.


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## Jessa24 (Dec 1, 2012)

Well when I was a child I owned a goldfish named Goldie who was huge and lived a long time. That was all knew of the fish world. Then two years ago my hubby and I wanted to get a fish. We started off with a goldfish we got at Walmart....and it died within two days. Our son was sad 

Hubby suggested we get a betta because he had one when he was younger and said they usually live for a few years and they're not too difficult to care for. We went to Petco and got our beautiful blue veiltail Nemo. He was with us for two years before he passed away.

Our son this time was heartbroken when Nemo died. As was I. Seriously I cried! I liked Nemo but it wasn't until he was gone that I realized how much I loved him and just the general love I have for bettas as a whole.

So we went out and brought home a new guy we named Splash. He's been with us for close to a month, we bought him from Petsmart, and so far he's awesome. When I got Splash I stumbled across this site. And I have learned so much here.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I got my first betta after I fish sat for a neighbor. I completely fell in love with Buddy so I went out and got my own. Then I ended up getting Buddy because my neighbor didn't want to take proper care of him. She said he wasn't made of gold and could easily be replaced.


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

When I was a child (probably 5-6), I remember my parents buying a few bettas for us (my brother and I). Unfortunately, my parents did not research proper betta fish care, and the poor things lived in probably 1/2 gallon bowls/vases for their entire lives. I remember always thinking that the cups and tiny bowls must be cruel, despite what I had been told by my parents and pet store employees. We also always seemed to have at least one tropical community tank- which was equally uncared for- but I eventually gave mine to a family friend because the filter was too loud for me to sleep (at this time I was probably 13). 

A few months later, my room just seemed very empty and lonely without any fish, so I decided to get a betta. However, I was then old enough to disregard what I had previously been told about betta fish (and just fish in general) care, and did my own research on the subject. Of course, once I learned about proper fish care, I was horrified by what I had believed as a child and the subpar care my previous pets had received. So, my new betta was housed in a heated, filtered, 5.5 gallon tank. 

It did take a little while for me to amass the necessary knowledge to keep truly healthy and stable tanks, but I then moved on to rescue quite a few fish over the next few years. The last of my bettas died of natural causes a year and a half ago, and I am now waiting to get back into the aquarium hobby until I have a bit more time on my hands (I am a prevet student right now, hoping to attain a doctorate degree in veterinary medicine and become a surgeon). During breaks, however, I am working on conducting research about various fish ailments because I have found that research in this field is sorely lacking (unfortunately, it just doesn't pay). So, I figure that I should take advantage of the time I have now (I probably won't have much spare time in my future) and make a worthwhile contribution to the aquarium hobby


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