# Why did you get your first betta?



## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

Just tell me how, why, and when you got your betta.

Ok here's my story...
Over the years I've kept fish like goldfish and guppies bit never in a tank, just a bowl
In 2012 around July I won 6 goldfish and kept them in a plastic bowl, we went to the petstore to get them water conditioner and food. Them we started looking at tanks. And gravel vacs and e talked to a store person. Them my dad said he would buy me a tank and stuff if my fish lived a few weekS. The fish died 

Later in the year..
In the December of 2012 me and my friend Katie decided to exchange Xmas gifts. She wanted a betta I wanted 2 more hermit crabs to add to my crabitat. So in December 9, I bought her what I believe is a vieltail. She bought me 2 crabs. Then afte Xmas she came over my house. And said she couldn't have the fish. I couldn't have the crabs. So we were suck with each others pets. So I named the betta splash and kept him, unfortionatly my dad didnt want me to have a fish. S I had to find him a home. A little after Febuary my other friend Brooke agreed to take him (which later led to a fish obsession in tropical fish)
He is still alive happy and heathy.


So in may I asked my dad for a goldfish, he said sure
So I set up one of the many spare 10 gallons in the house, and I added water and a power head (I didn't have a filter)
My friend Brooke got me a goldfish for my birthday in may and a bowl but I put the fish in the 10 gallon. He lived for about a week and died. To replace the fish I went to petsmart and saw he bettas. Since I've been watching betta fishies on youtube I knew their care. I got him a heater and some betta food and a moss ball. I got a crowntail dragonscale. He lived in the 10 gallon for a while. The next week I bought a 5 gallon, cycled the filter for 26 hours and added my betta. Soon I got another betta and some tropical fish, and another betta..... Etc. I'm getting more today.


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

I got my first betta from my local petstore when I was there buying pet supplies for my dogs & cat.I had never owned a betta before but always thought they were very beautiful & would look at them every time I was there.This particular day I saw the cutest little red veiltail boy,I went home but couldn't stop thinking about him.I knew I had to have him,so I went back and got him,I named him Link.He was so wonderful right from the first day,I bought him in 2007.Because of that dear little boy I have loved bettas ever since & always will.My 3 little blue veiltail boys I have now are brilliant! :-D


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## LilMitsuko (Oct 8, 2011)

I've never had a pet in my life (save for some fish my family had, but they were never "mine"). I was at home a lot (while job searching), and was feeling a bit lonely. A girlfriend of mine mentioned she bought herself a beautiful blue betta named Mr. Feesh. She showed me some pictures (and drew a few herself), and after doing some research on Bettas, I fell in love with them. I decided to get one myself. After several weeks of thinking, planning, rethinking, and debating with myself, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to get a fish.

I went to Petco (though I don't like to go there, I read all the horror stories of poor living conditions for the fish, and the various rescue stories out there) and decided to rescue a fish from there. I had intended to buy a male (because of the beautiful colors and fins and whatnot), but a little orange spec caught my eye. It was a little female, and her fins were rather plain (and her color, too), in comparison to all the other males that were around her, but the thing that really drew my attention was the way she _watched me._ When I would wiggle my finger at the other fish, they would sink to the bottom of their cups or shrink away in fear. She, on the other hand, wriggled right back and swam around excitedly in her tank. I walked away for a bit to look at the tanks and things they were selling there, and when I came back, she perked up and dashed around in her cup excitedly. That's when I knew I would be taking her home.

My first Betta fish is named Fin-fin. Six months after I bought her, I got a job in Japan and couldn't bring her with me. :< But a friend of mine offered to take her in, and as far as I know, she's doing well in her new house. I miss my baby a lot. I bought myself another Betta in Japan (since I intend to stay here for a long long time), and named him Nivy. He's a darling, too, though very very shy. :]


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Let's see... my first betta. I wanted one because I needed a pet that could be left alone for long periods of time. I work strange hours, so a dog or cat was out of the running. A friend had a betta and thought I might like one, too. He was a crowntail from Petco named Sheik. He was a rather typical color... dark blue with red ventrals. I adored him so very much, but he died after a week of some unknown disease. I was devastated and swore off bettas, but my father convinced me that I should try again. 

A couple weeks later, I finally mustered the ambition to go to Petsmart and have a look at their bettas. I walked out with a tiny crowntail male named Drago, and ever since I have not been without at least one betta. Currently I have 13. ^_^


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

My first betta came with a 180L tank I bought. It was a boring, lazy thing that sat in the corner and made me hate all bettas. A few years later me and my friend somehow got the idea that we could get bettas and fight them...so we buy a betta each, mine was a red ct called Jeezy . Put him in his guppy baby saver in the guppy tank and fell in love. He was much more active and actually had a personality.

Then I decided Id try breeding since I love learning things are inherited. 2 hour drive, got me a 2 ladies, a red vt and a deformed ugly marble...Luckily I completely failed breeding Jeezy but he sparked my love of bettas and taught me that they arent actually lazy, dopey and boring fish.
By the way me and my friend never actually ended up fighting our bettas lol we were too scared to risk them getting hurt.

Heres Jeezy


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## dannikedar (Jul 24, 2013)

I got my first betta when I was around 7 I think. There was a breeder that had a stall at the Sydney Easter Show (it's an annual show where people bring their animals to show their best from dogs and cats to cows and pigs and chickens etc. but there's also just things to buy and cotton candy and rides, like a really big fair). Anyway I'm pretty sure we didn't intent on buying a fish that day but we must have just really liked it or I was just good at convincing my parents to buy it for me haha. He was a deep bright blue VT I think and I named him Sapphire haha. Got to admit that at the time no one in my family knew what the proper care/tank size was for bettas but some how even in his less than ideal conditions he was ok. He lived for about 3 years and I was so devastated when he died I designed him his own coffin made out of a match box and invited all my friends over and told them to wear black because I was having a funeral for him and I buried him in his little match box in the garden... RIP Sapphire, my favourite fishy. That was a long time ago though, I'm 18 now haha


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## LinkLover (Apr 3, 2012)

Last March, I decided I wanted to get an "inexpensive" and "easy" pet, since I already had my dog. So when we went to the pet store and looked around at my options, I ended up choosing a Betta. I got him a ten gallon tank, because I'm a big believer in giving your pets the best life you can provide (and I wanted him to be spoiled). I picked the one with the most greenish color and named him Link, after the Legend of Zelda character. Of course after we got him out of the blue Petsmart water I discovered he was actually mainly blue. I looked up Betta care online to make sure I had everything I needed to take care of him properly, and I ended up here. Of course by the end of the day, my husband had gone back to the pet store twice and spent over a hundred dollars.  So that's how I ended up with my first Betta, and then the obsession began...


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

My first betta.. More like 2.
It was my birthday, and as a joke, my parents bought me 2 Crowntail bettas. 

They kept them in this tank with a divider.

I thought that was horrible, and pissed off they pushed this responsibility onto me. Being new still, I bought a 1 gallon tank to separate the fish. I realized the tank was too small, and got my mom to buy a 10 gallon and divide it. The blue one died shortly after, however, but I still have the red one (Red) to this day (now in my Fluval Chi).

Blue:



Red: 



So that left Red to have the 10 gallon all to himself. Now, I did some further research and bought a 5 gallon Fluval Chi. I then bought my first betta (for myself), Solus, a VT. Right now he's currently living in a 10 gallon all by himself.

Solus:



Then I saw Dusk. I bought the fish before the tank because I couldn't leave him there any longer. For Dusk, I bought a Fluval Spec, and took some of the filter media and gravel from the Fluval Chi, hopefully kickstarting the cycle. He is and always will be my favourite betta. He lived for about 1-2 months, before dying. He's the only betta I've ever cried over.

Dusk:





Moving on, my mom bought 3 females for a 10 gallon, trying to start a sorority. 2 females died, and Athena was left. I moved Athena to my empty Fluval Spec and planted it. Shortly after, I decided I wanted a sorority. So while I was convincing my mom to let me take the 10 gallon for a sorority, I bought plants, substrate, lighting, and a new hood for the tank. Soon, I had 4 females in my 5 gallon tank, even though it was only temporary, I was anxious to move them to my 10 gallon. Now they're in there and happy.
Sorry, no sorority pics xD

Now for my latest fish, Marine. While we were waiting for the Spec to free up, I kept him in the Fluval Chi, and moved Red to the hospital tank temporarily. Once the sorority moved to the 10 gallon, I moved Marine to the Spec, and Red to the Chi. 

Marine:



I almost forgot about Perseus my CT rescue. He lived in the hospital tank for most of his life, sometimes in the Chi. He was before Marine, and he died before I got Red.

Perseus: 



And my Baby Betta who only lived for a week or 2:



RIP.

Lol, sorry for the story xD i just kinda went crazy


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## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

Bump


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## xShainax (Feb 11, 2012)

My friend bought me one for Christmas 2010. His name was Antoine(Sister picked the name) and he was a regular blue/red wash VT betta.


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## Indigo Betta (Sep 27, 2012)

I didn't know what a betta was until a year and a half ago 
than when looking at goldfish videos on youtube I saw a video of a betta I thought what's that beautiful fish it was betta I found out a bit about them and had to go and get one for myself. so I got my first betta because their so pretty


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## Mary Kathryn (Jul 17, 2013)

I had one as a child and it met a horrible end because we were clueless and had it in an unheated tank with a bunch of other fish who were fin biters. I've always loved them. Over the last six months I kept finding myself looking at them in pet stores when we'd go in to get cat food. Our 16 year old min pin went over the rainbow bridge back in January of this year and I guess I was looking for a new something to fuss over that wouldn't be as much trouble as a dog. (HA!) 
I'd planned to get one about three months ago but a stray cat adopted us and I ended up using the money I had for the fish to get her healthy and spayed. (So much for keeping the animal population in the house down, eh? :lol: )
So fast foward to now. I finally got my betta last week. I couldn't resist the African dwarf frogs so I have two of them as well. I think I spend more time staring into the tank when I'm at home now than playing on the computer or watching tv. The aquarium is in on my desk in my office. My husband and I are already discussing another aquarium for the bedroom maybe for Christmas. :-D


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I got my first betta my late in my first semester of college, after my friend kept telling me how cool they were, she having one in her room. Since I couldn't bring either my cat or dog to college, I decided to get these mythical fish that didn't need large aquariums, filters, heaters, and were overall, inexpensive. 
I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a black and blue CT that I cleverly named (joking) Beta. I got him some gems for the bottom of his bowl, and one fake corral decoration. Looking back, the bowl was basically 2-3 cups, so it wasn't even a step up from his cup :-(, and I bought him some pellets to eat.
I did love him though. I enjoyed watching him swim around, and his most unique trait was borrowing into the gems and sleeping under them. I cleaned out his bowl daily, but I didn't really think much of it that he kept spitting out his pellets, not knowing much about bettas at the time, I just figured it was how they ate their food. 
I only had Beta a month, and one weekend when I went home, leaving his care up to my room mate, I came back to find him dead, evidence of my room mate feeding him on the bottom of his bowl. I was quite devastated. I decided that I shouldn't get another fish if I couldn't keep one alive for more than a month.

Beta-S.I.P.










Over a year later, I was suffering from depression, though I wasn't aware of it at the time. I'd lost my best friend, buddy, and loyal dog, Herbie very suddenly, and I was an emotional wreck. It got so bad that one day I had an emotional breakdown and I did not attend classes that day. Amazingly enough, I did call my mom, and she helped me to at least get a smidge bit of control over my crying that hadn't stopped since I'd woken up. I don't remember how many days after this incident that it was, but I went to Wal-Mart wanting to either get a plant of some sort (I was leaning towards a cactus) or a fish. I was leaning more towards a plant, memories of Beta still fresh in my mind, but all Wal-Mart had was cacti that my nosey kitty would stab himself on when I brought it home, so I wandered into the fish section, looking at the bettas. I told myself that I needed an active betta (unlike Beta, who had been fairly still in his cup) and that's when I caught sight of a flash of red, and that's when I picked up Merlin to look at him, and he glared back at me. I decided that this fish was coming home with me and I picked up a one gallon Critter Keeper, some gravel, a fake plastic plant, and a moon cave and I took him to my dorm. Later on, he'd be upgraded to two different 3 gallon tanks, and eventually he'd end up sharing a 5.5 gallon tank, with my dark copper PKDS Dragoon, who I picked up to give Merlin someone to have next door to him since he seemed to miss being able to keep track of me all the time when I came home from college and put him in my room. Merlin did like not being in such high traffic area, but missed seeing me, so I got Dragoon, who was the calmest of the bettas I liked, and I figured he would be ideal to house with Merlin, who is more aggressive, since he didn't really flare at the other bettas at Pet Smart, and he still doesn't really flare. I've only seem him completely flare maybe once or twice, but not much more. 
Merlin was the one to really get me interested in bettas, and Dragoon just solidified the fact. Beta was the first though, and I learned quite a bit from him just in that one month and how wrong most pet stores are in their "recommended care".

Merlin:









Dragoon:


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## fishkid (Jul 29, 2008)

Got 2 free veiltails from the guy I got my first tank from. That was 10 years ago and I'm expecting some bettas to arrive tomorrow to rekindle the passion.


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## redthebetta (Aug 11, 2013)

I got mine 4 years ago from my local pet store when we still had one cry. He died 2 years later.


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## Torla (Aug 15, 2013)

My first betta was a male blue veiltail. My oldest sister gave him to me for my birthday when I was rather young, I think 11 or 12? He lived for three years in a small bowl with a single plastic plant. (I didn't know any better.)

I don't know what my next one will be, although I've got my eye on this amazing red gold fire dragon male from one of our member's AquaBids.


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## makoisland (Mar 2, 2012)

Though I'd always casually played with the idea of having a goldfish bowl in my room, I believe what really got me into fish was when my dad got some new ones for our 55gal one time. I decided that I wanted to set up an aquarium in my own room, with 3 goldfish in a 5 gallon perhaps. I wanted to get them immediately, but my sister told me I should wait until I moved into my new (current) room, and while I waited to get a betta or something.

So I did.

After investigating for a few moments, I had my eye on two fish at WalMart, a blue veiltail male and a red crowntail mail. Eventually (mostly because there was less water in the cup) I chose the red crowntail, brought him home and put him in a 1 gallon bowl, and named him Mako. That was in March 2012. Since then I moved him to a 2-2.5 gallon, then the 5 gallon he's in today.  

(I was informed that 5 gallons was not enough room for 3 goldfish, so since then I've decided to change those plans into, eventually, a 10 gallon sorority. I've also gotten a new betta, Zane Fishvin, since then. -betta crazy- ;-))


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## Twixies (Nov 28, 2012)

My Environmental Science class was doing an experiment on ecosystems. We got two 2-L bottles stacked on top off of each other (the bottom one had the top cut off), the top had a plant, some water, a cricket and a worm, the bottom was filled with water, had a betta and a water plant of some sort (forgot the name). We would do water tests for the water ecosystem (the top one was sealed off) to see the oxygen level, carbon dioxide, pH, and other tests throughout a month or so. Pretty much I just kept my betta since my partner didn't want it, I kind of felt bad that we did the experiment on those poor bettas ): I think 3 of them died. We didn't feed them for the whole month, didn't change the water, just put them by a window, so no heat at night, but my little guy made it somehow and I'm so glad that I have him as a pet


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## Loz (Aug 8, 2013)

I went to the pet shop to buy my son a goldfish, but unfortunately they had none.. just the skinny type but I wanted a "pretty one". I decided to skip the fish and just grab some goldfish food instead... I ended up standing next to a beautiful betta in his own small tank and went yep, that fish is awesome! So with some terrible how to care for him advice and a fish in a bag and betta fish food, we got our first betta.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

I got my first betta back in March I believe and now I can't believe I've gone the past 21 years without one! I was at Petco and got suckered into the whole baby betta thing. I saw one and absolutely fell in love. I just *had* to save her. I bought her one of the terrible baby betta homes, only to quickly run out and buy her a 3 gallon, heater, and more plants. 

On one of my subsequent visits I fell in love with a black, red, & blue CT male. My friend had a spare 2.5g and heater, so he got a new home with me as well. 

Unfortunately those two passed within two weeks of each other this past month and I still don't know exactly what happened. Nothing was cross-contaminated and the baby just looked like it gave up. I kept up with water changes and everything, I don't know what could have been done differently. My CT I believe died of a some kind of fungus. I tried treating it, but I guess it was too late. :/

So now I have a 10g sorority with 4 females, an albinio cory, a mystery snail, 3 guppies, and a lone zebra danio (started off with 6 but various accidents happened and I don't think my LFS will take him back). The zebra at least hangs out with the guppies so he's not alone. Lots of hiding spots, plants, a Marimo moss ball, and water wisteria.

And I also have 2 males - another black, blue, and red CT and a beautiful Elephant Ear (a lucky Petsmart find).  It's definitely an addiction!


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## nsteare (Aug 29, 2013)

I got my first betta as a gift before the school year started, his name was Jupiter.


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## carrohason (Aug 23, 2013)

I got my first (and currently only) betta to prove to myself that I was responsible enough to take care of a living thing all on my own.


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## MichelleA (Jun 25, 2013)

Our first Betta was dropped off on our porch in a half gallon tank simillar to what mar linked. It was a present for my 2 year old daughter from the grandparents. He came with gravel, three plastic plants and some cheap tropical fish flakes. I was sooooo mad. Ive never particularly liked fish. I already had two dogs, a baby, a 40+ hour a week job, schooling and a house to maintain. I was not very happy about being dumped on with more responsibility. I knew no fish could thrive living in that little piece of crap tank so being the lover of all animals that I am and even though I was as unhappy as i was about it I did some research and found this forum. THANK GOD btw.... and 200.00 later we had him swimming nice in a 10 gallon NPT with all the perks. Well Ive come to realize what an interesting and interactive fish this is and now, two months later, I have a 5 gallon, and a divided 10 gallon both NPTs and 4 bettas all togehter. Also, an empty 30 gallon I want to put a sorority in!! Weve had our ups and downs and I am certainly still learning but thats my story... so far : )


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