# New guy with new Betta



## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Hello everyone!

I purchased a new betta from lovelybettas.com instead of the Pet Smart or PetCo. Route because of some horror stories I have read. Anyway I have had him a week and I have named him Kappa, he is listed as a random red/purple/black/blue marble HMPK. Was told he is about a year old not sure if accurate hope some people with more knowledge than me can help. He currently is in a 5 gallon Marineland ML90609 Portrait Aquarium tank with a Tetra HT10, 3 silk plants, a cave with 5 entrances/exits, 2 betta beds, mixture of black stone and black sand, 2 Nerite snails. I am feeding him a variety of Omega One products such as betta pellets, brine shrimp, blood worms. If anyone has any helpful/thoughtful suggestions please feel free. This is my first Betta so please be gentle!:smile2:

Here are a few pictures I took with my tablet so not the best.


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## dennythebetta (Mar 8, 2017)

He's beautiful. You're doing pretty good, considering he's your first Betta. :smile2:


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

dennythebetta said:


> He's beautiful. You're doing pretty good, considering he's your first Betta. :smile2:


Great to hear ty!


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

So I'm loving this guy. Definitely think he's digging his new 5 gallon setup, when I feed him with a pipet he comes and pecks it as a greeting them waits for his food to slowly come down to him it's so funny...lol


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

So apparently I have a jumper...lol For his night feeding as I am lowering the pipet to feed him he tries to snag the food out of mid air before it drops into the water. It scared and amazed me at the same time! This guy is always full of energy so it shouldn't surprise me.


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## DucktorHannah (Oct 6, 2017)

Can I ask about the purple plant? What is its name? Is it alive? It's gorgeous!


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

DucktorHannah said:


> Can I ask about the purple plant? What is its name? Is it alive? It's gorgeous!


No it is a silk plant. I bought it from PetSmart, I believe it's Marina brand.


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## DucktorHannah (Oct 6, 2017)

Thank you! Looks wonderful though.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Ok so everything is going fine so far I think, he seems happy checks out his aquarium top to bottom but I have a question. I am really not sure I am feeding him enough, I feed him 3 Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets which are soaked for 10 minutes before feeding in the morning and at night Mon-Wed Thurs-Saturday I feed 3 of the Omega One Pellets in the morning followed by 3 soaked bloodworms at night or a pinch of daphnia or a pinch of brine shrimp just switch it up a bit. I fast him on Sundays which is also when I do my water changes. Like I said everything seems but he is such a voracious eater I just want to make sure he is getting enough without overfeeding. He just seems to always want more. Am I doing it right, thoughts?


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

To add to the above post he's just so aggressive when he gets fed so I just want to make sure he is getting enough and is not starving.


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## Prothesious (Oct 17, 2017)

SpazPlayzz said:


> To add to the above post he's just so aggressive when he gets fed so I just want to make sure he is getting enough and is not starving.


Can you take a picture of him right now to see what he is growing into? From my understanding 3 pellets is a bit much.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Prothesious said:


> Can you take a picture of him right now to see what he is growing into? From my understanding 3 pellets is a bit much.


3 in the morning and 2 at night is too much? It's late right now but will post pictures tomorrow.


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

3 pellets are fine imo. I feed mine 4 to 5 a day. Unless they get bloated very quickly 5 small pellets are okay in my book. 

EDIT: and you are doing just fine. 

Just be careful with any freeze dried foods. It tends to bloat them more. Bloodworms and whatnot are more for snacks, like ice cream is for us. =P


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## Prothesious (Oct 17, 2017)

SpazPlayzz said:


> Prothesious said:
> 
> 
> > Can you take a picture of him right now to see what he is growing into? From my understanding 3 pellets is a bit much.
> ...



I've always fed mine 2 a day and skip Sundays.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Prothesious said:


> I've always fed mine 2 a day and skip Sundays.


I do skip feeding Sundays.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Prothesious said:


> I've always fed mine 2 a day and skip Sundays.


You feed your Betta 2 all day?


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

Here are the most recent photos of Kappa taken this morning on my phone.


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## DZIM (Oct 20, 2015)

How many pellets depends entirely on the fish... one of my bettas is a fully grown adult that happens to be extremely small and he struggles to eat 3 pellets in a single feeding. My other bettas of average size used to struggle with 3-4, but over time I've gotten them up to 7-8 per feeding which they can now consume easily within a few minutes. You can work them up to eating more, it just takes slow practice to do safely. If you want them to eat more, ramp up their feedings by a single pellet every other day or so to get their stomachs used to holding that much. I probably won't condition mine to eat more than 7-8 pellets at a time, though, as they look pretty full with that much. I also do alternate day fastings to make sure they're ready to eat again at the next round as they still tend to look pretty full the day after eating.

To determine how much food your individual betta needs, just watch his behavior and look at his body. How many pellets does he eat within 30 minutes and how many get left uneaten? How many does it take until his belly looks swollen? Whenever he stops looking swollen, you can feed him again. Safe feeding is mostly just a matter of not feeding them so much, so quickly, that they can't pass it and wind up injuring themselves.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Lol, I feed my fish like 10 pellets a day. I use NLS and don't skip any days, never had issues bloating.
I believe Russell mentioned it before, but if you're feeding a high quality and digestible food (like NLS or NorthFin Betta bites), then you don't need skip days. Unless of course you end up feeding too much accidentally, then just wait a day and he should be just fine.


Tree has it right on the freeze-dried stuff, try not to feed that too often. Once a week should be just fine but not daily.


Your fish looks good! Yeah, his belly is a bit round but nothing to concerning at the moment. You can try to skip today and adjust your feeding from there. It's a trail and error thing. Not all fish can eat the same amount of pellets.


He is clamping his fins though. You have a heater?
I also adore your idea with the floating plant with the parts hanging down! You should get a few more of those if possible! Your tank is well decorated but I would add one more very tall plant that would arch over the top of the tank for him. Betta's love top plants as that is where their territory is, it would make him feel more comfortable which may be what the clamping is about.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol, I feed my fish like 10 pellets a day. I use NLS and don't skip any days, never had issues bloating.
> I believe Russell mentioned it before, but if you're feeding a high quality and digestible food (like NLS or NorthFin Betta bites), then you don't need skip days. Unless of course you end up feeding too much accidentally, then just wait a day and he should be just fine.
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah it's weird with his clamping he does it off and on. Yes I have a heater it's an Aqueon pro 50 adjustable, the temperature is always between 80-81. I actually thought about another plant but not sure where to put it without out covering his cave holes. The floating plants are kind of new had them about 2 weeks, Kappa seems to like them going in between them zooming around and bolting into them...lol Just thought about his clamping he does have a torn fin that he arrived with which doesn't seem to bother him but not really sure, he is very active swimming about but he also is not a very active nest builder. He will build a nest for maybe 10 min. then just leave it pretty much all week.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Lol sounds like pretty typical behavior for most Bettas.
Caves aren't used as much so go ahead and block a hole, that's not a problem. The plants are much more useful ^_^


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol sounds like pretty typical behavior for most Bettas.
> Caves aren't used as much so go ahead and block a hole, that's not a problem. The plants are much more useful ^_^


Have any suggestions for a silk plant that you are trying to describe?


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

What do you think about this plant?

https://www.amazon.com/Vibran-Sea-A...rd_wg=H9l8I&psc=1&refRID=HNFB468H7PSX361RYZW2


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

SpazPlayzz said:


> What do you think about this plant?
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Vibran-Sea-A...rd_wg=H9l8I&psc=1&refRID=HNFB468H7PSX361RYZW2


Yes! That's perfect. You can place it in the back right corner and have it arch forward diagonally as well. Doesn't have to go in the front to block the holes ^_^


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

lilnaugrim said:


> Yes! That's perfect. You can place it in the back right corner and have it arch forward diagonally as well. Doesn't have to go in the front to block the holes ^_^


Sounds good. I thought about this one as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Vibran-Sea-Butterfly-Silk-Style-Aquarium-Extra-Large/dp/B0039ZP3WS


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I saw that one as well while looking for cheaper options. The only thing with that one is I'd cut off the little green plastic parts that stick out of it. Don't want to hurt Betta fins if possible. Silly that they include plastic on a fabric plant but oh well. Easy fix!


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

lilnaugrim said:


> I saw that one as well while looking for cheaper options. The only thing with that one is I'd cut off the little green plastic parts that stick out of it. Don't want to hurt Betta fins if possible. Silly that they include plastic on a fabric plant but oh well. Easy fix!


I bought the African Sword plant one, should have it by next weekends water change so I will put it in then.


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

So after doing some research I am switching from Omega One to Northfin as far as the staple food. It's amazing what is allowed to be in fish food. Food should be here on Thursday so will give a report on how Kappa likes it. Here is a link to the food and a guideline to what to look for in fish food good and bad.

NorthFin

Betta Bits - NorthFinUSA

A guideline to fish food.

Fish Food Ingredients


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## SpazPlayzz (Sep 19, 2017)

An update about Kappa everything is fine. I did make a brief mention about him jumping out of his tank in another post which was kind of scary seeing it was about a 3.5 foot drop onto the carpet. I quickly scooped him up and placed him back in the tank, and he was kind of stunned and just sitting on the bottom of the tank. After a while he began swimming around but was freaked out again when I saw he was only using one of his pectoral fins but after a while he started using the other one a little bit and within probably 2-3 hours he was up and running like nothing happened. To remedy this from happening again I now just open the aquarium up enough to fit the pipette down the side to feed him. What is weird is since his jumping incident coincidence or not he been flaring more and building more intricate eggs nests.


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