# Kings Among Splendens



## GemBetta96 (Jun 9, 2016)

Hello everyone who decides to read my journal. Here's a bit about my "collection". I have seven betta in total. Two possibly three female. And four male. A pleco, two neon tetra, two neon danios, a flame tetra, and a long fin black tetra. The tetra, aside from the flame tetra, were my sister's until she decided she'd rather have a guinea pig. Understandable. But anyhow. Also 2 black mystery snails.
My betta males. There is Sapphire II. I named him after my very first betta. One I could easily scoop out of his tank for cleaning and such. I can't remember if he was a vieltail or a crowntail. But he was blue so my 7 year old mind thought of my birthstone and so the name was given. This Sapphire however is a good sized Crowntail. I bought him from walmart. He's done well so far and is fiesty as can be. He is in a split half gallon with Alexandrite. 

Then there's Opal. Also a walmart fish, but a good one. He is probably the most unique betta I've ever seen. He is a vieltail. He's also a good size. His body is pinkish or orange depending on the lighting. His fins are long and cellophane orange, the tips shine tiel in the light so does his body occasionally. He is black masked and startled easily. He is in a gallon tank alone.

Then comes Alexandrite. I'm going in the order I got them. Alexandrite is a petsmart crowntail. I'm not sure if she's as big as she's going to get or not. But she's doing well. She is dark in color. But reflects different cool colors, as the gemstone does in different lighting. I had originally gotten her to breed with Sapphire eventually. But I have decided against it. As I am poor and do not know what I'd do with possible 1100 bettas. Anyhow. If I ever did breed, I think I'd breed her with Opal. Even though I know the VT gene is dominant over the CT. She shares a half gallon with Sapphire as I mentioned before. 

Now, here's where things get a bit wild. I bought three bettas in one day. One King. One female Crowntail. And one male double tail. All from Petco. I'm gonna go in the order I decided on them. 

First. Is The Broken Betta. He is my double tail male. He is mostly white, with Koi coloring. He does have the marbling gene. His fins are cellophane and reflect a light shiney blue color. He has a few black spots on his body. And a red spot on the top of his head. Ivery been calling him The Broken Betta. Well because he's missing the top half of his tail. I got him because I want to help heal him and help him to regrow his fin. He does frighten me. Because occasionally he letsaid himself drift up and sideways to where he floats sideways. And I think he's dead. I've been giving hime Melafix and changing his water. I'm going to get him a tank heater soon. But I'll need to shuffle tanks around so he can be in my 2.5 glass tank. Anyways. He shares a half gallon with the second female CT. 

The second female CT I haven't thought of a name for yet. She was still young when I picked her out. In the 5 days that I've had her, her coloring has darkened on her fins. Her body is still white. Pinkish white. And her fins have darkened to a crimson. She is the first betta I've ever gotten with any sort of major red coloring. I'm not fond of red bettas. They've always seemed so common to me. I know some people love them and all. But that's just me. Anyhow. Maybe you guys can help me name her. She's a spunky little thing. 

Then the first King Betta. I've taken to just calling him King. Because I can't really think of anything more fitting. I fell in love with his size. Because I'd never seen a betta so big before. He's seemed very scared until recently. Maybe because I had him on my bedside table. Alone with no other fish in his sight range. He's become more active now. I switched his tank and the shared half gallon between TBB and my nameless female CT. So now he's by the other glass tanks. He's in a 2.5 gallon. And it seems to be well enough space for him. I'd say he's about 3 to 4 inches long. 

Lastly, there is Goliath. He/she I found at a different petco than the last three. It was in a glotank with several glofish. When I first noticed it I thought wtf and ran to get my sister to show her it. I soon noticed in there was two other giant bettas in two other glotanks with glofish. It wasn't charging or being aggressive. Which I thought was neat. Until that point I'd never seen a betta in a tank with other fish in person before. There was one larger than it. But it was laying on its side on the bottom gasping and occasionally righting itself in the water. It seemed to big for its fins or maybe just sick and dying. Who knows. I told an employee about it. And he said he was going to leave a note for the person that would come in the next day to do maintenence or something. Then told him I wanted the one I have. This betta, has got to be 4 to 5 inches long. Why I am questioning it's gender? Today, I noticed a white dot in front of its anal fin. It always keeps it long fins pressed against it. As does my smaller king betta. Their other fins aren't pressed against them. So pretty sure they don't have clamped fins because they do release them now and then. But anyhow. I pushed their tanks together so they could see eachother though the glass. And flare at eachother and stretch I guess. Idk I read that it was good for them to flare occasionally. While they were showing off to each other. I noticed it. So now I'm rethinking the name Goliath. And thinking maybe something fit for a queen. He/she is in a 5 gallon filtered glotank with two glofish. Who it occasionally charges. It's the cutest little fish though. When I come home from work it paces the glass and sways back and fourth against it when it sees me and waits for me to come over and give it some food.

Alright. Now that that's done. I know some of you feel it's inhumane to keep bettas in such small containers. When I was young. I had Sapphire. In a half gallon tank. One of the cheap ones you get from Walmart that divide in half. Eventually, little kid me, wanted another betta. So, I put in the divider, and bought Sunshine. He was a golden yellow betta. Again I don't remember if he was CT or VT. The only breeds walmart carries. Those fish lived well past the length of time bettas normally live. Probably somewhere between 3 and 5 years. They're only supposed to live about 2 years. To me, this is fine and manageable. I live with my grandparents. My grandma freaks out over tiny things. The floors are wooden. She doesn't want water on the floor because it will leave marks. Small tanks work for me. I do complete water changes on the little tanks once a week. And every other week on the big ones. More often than not every week on my 10 gallon because grime builds up and I cant deal with seeing it. I change waters on the weekends because that's when my grandma works. So it's easier that way because I don't have to stress about her yelling at me or getting onto me about it. My fish are not neglected. I feed them every morning and occasionally at night. Anyways let me know if you want to know anything.


----------



## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

A split half gallon?!

Unacceptable, I'm sorry. You need to upgrade and clean those tanks.

ETA.. I apologize for not reading all the way through, I was horrified. But this is not "fine" or "manageable". They need 2x a day cleanings, to keep these tanks clean enough. Even then, those bettas will be stressed and unhealthy.

ETA2... Mini rant coming, beware. Those fish are not going to live very long. They need to be cleaned way more often -- that giant needs at least 10 gallons. You need 1x a week cleanings on the bigger, filtered tanks, and all tanks need a heater. These are TROPICAL fish. They need fed 2x a day, 3 pellets. The Giant should be fed more than that.


----------



## Tourmaline (Nov 23, 2015)

I was going to comment something along those lines but I'm not that bold. x.x I definitely agree. 

Not even your King is housed properly, he needs a 10g _minimum_ if he's 3-4 inches. The smallest tank I'd ever house a Betta in is 3g, and even that I feel is small. Weekly changes on those tiny tanks isn't even close to enough. If you can't house them properly because of your grandmother, why get them at all?

Your other fish lived that long because their metabolisms were likely slowed by cold water and not being cared for properly. I'd rather have my Bettas live happily and healthy in spacious tanks for 2 years than cramped and miserable to get a few more years out of them.


----------



## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Exactly, @Tourmaline. I literally... I mean, I don't want to be a spaz, but you need to get those Bettas new homes, Grandmother or not. The Giant needs 10g minimum. All the others should have either divided 5s or 10s. You are neglecting them, wether you think so or not. Underfed, non heated, unfiltered, divided .5 gallon tanks, is not okay. :/


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

Hmmmmm I use to keep my betta's in 2 liters and yes if you for instant breed them you can't keep them all bigger, so I quiet understand what you mean, here in Holland there are for instant students with have also less room and those jars are fine than. Ohhhhw yes and now I do have a discussion started, if you clean it, once a day for 10 cm ( I hope you can manage to set it down in your parameters) than you get the first important live Base right, next to the heated area?? Maybe a steady heated room do fine, or a heatmat and finally, food, wich you have to variate, like in pellets and live food. Than your betta is well cared for. I know some use to say 60 cm is the limit, but in my house they are all growing up in 6 liters. Better than the little jars or bottles like in Thailand, where for instant all petco betta's are mostly coming from. So, for me the care and all what is necessary to keep a betta happy, is for measuring much impotent as space.
You can also use thing to keep them happy. Like pingpongbals, or a piece of straw, or just a piece of beechleave or almond. 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

It is not fair to say 'at least it is better than the petstore cups, or jars in Thailand'. Yes they have problems at the petstore but they are in cups because they are designed as temporary until they are sold, same as the jars. It even says on the cups that they are not permanent homes. And just because you can always find a worse off situation doesn't mean you can have them housed in whatever tiny thing you want.


----------



## Engel (Jan 27, 2016)

If... if you ever need a new home for The Broken Betta, I'd take him.
Depending on where you live, I could pick him up.

The containers you currently have them in is way too small =/


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

I do not say it's better, but read, if you give him the ultimate care in those three things, they will live very happy. There are people who havealarge tank but the care for that sucks. That is what I mean. And no I do not have one or four betta's, I m a hobbybreeder providing people a beautiful Hm or Ct betta of showquality 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

Ps: sorry no offence, but I have a room with about 150 betta's growing up, in large tanks, about 5 of them and than the separate males 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## Tourmaline (Nov 23, 2015)

Okay.. If you lived your whole life in a closet, but your parents fed you really good food, gave you a nice game to play every now and then, and kept the closet at a comfortable temperature, would you be happy? The answer is most likely no. 

It's cruel to keep Bettas in anything smaller than at the very least a gallon, according to most people, and anything smaller than 2.5 gallons, in my opinion. I don't care what kind of fancy foods you give them or if it's heated and they play with toys. The size limitations are cruel, and there's no swimming space. 

I'm talking about for pets. This whole thing is about pets, not 'Betta mills'.


----------



## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

@Tourmaline: I agree, breeding jars are a different story because they are made to be temporary. Like how at animal shelters dogs are kept in small stalls, it is just a temporary hold. If you kept your dog like that their whole lives that would be considered cruelty.


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

For me it's cruelty, save a betta from wall mart, because you can give it a good home but you hold the mill rolling by buying them. 
You must know that the HM is sometimes that heavy, that they will get torn fins in a big tank. So much of them will be hold in 20/30 liters. With live plants.
So I said so, this will be a discussion with not anyone will agree in, shure not me. And by the way, that comparison is what I heard a lot. If you want to do it right you would not hold or buy any fish if you know the background how they get to you or your country. There are hundreds but half of them will dy underway. So if you want to do it right, keep the fish in their habitat, and don't buy them, also with birds, turtles and so on. 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## Tourmaline (Nov 23, 2015)

Sparing a Betta from a slow death in a cup isn't cruelty. No matter what we do, pet stores are still going to supply Bettas, so will Walmart. No amount of refusing to buy will make them stop, so the solution is to let all of them die? I have bought sick Bettas on purpose, ones with fin melt, suffering from shock, with severe SBD, and they were often my favorites. I disagree completely. 

Five of my Bettas are HMs/DeTs and they're all in 20+ liter tanks, same goes for my PKs. My smallest tank is 11 liters, and houses a CT. My HMs are fine, no torn fins, a few did bite their fins but for different reasons than their tank size, all have stopped. 20 liters is the perfect tank size for any Betta under 2 inches BO, in my opinion.


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

Aha, that's nice, but I agree, but also there are a lot of people who think 60 liters is minimum. 
I can understand why some people buy betta's if they are in tiny cups and ill and so on and yes it will never stop, but I will not or won't buy any betta's in stores. I buy them from local breeders in Thailand ( yes out of that awsome tiny bottle) but sometimes I do not need that because there are a lot of breeders wich breed and sell fish, here in Europe. And those are all completely healthy. Do we getting rich, no, It's a hobby, like as football here and breeding show birds.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Sorry, I'm not good with metric conversions. 60 liters is about 10 G, right? Majority of the people on this forum go by this guideline.

1 G or less - Hospital tanks, temporary tanks.
2-10 G - Tanks for bettas at 1-2 in. 
10 G + - Community tanks or tanks for King bettas (2+ in.)


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

I have the same with gallons lol

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------



## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Haha! It sucks having different names for the same amount of water, right!?


----------



## Jootje67 (May 19, 2016)

😂😂😂😂

Verstuurd vanaf mijn E6653 met Tapatalk


----------

