I have a pretty small tank, that I had goldfish in, and they didn't do to well. I always overlooked beta's because I assumed they'd be boring to look at. Whenever I see 'em on sale at petsmart or stuff, they don't look very active. If I put 'em in a tank would they "liven up?" I kind of liked my gold fish a lot because they swam around and were very active. I assume they can't have tank mates very well, but seeing as I only have a 2.ish Gallon tank, that's not enough room for more than one fish anyway, right?
Beta Fish and cold water
- Thread starter Shanks
- Start date
Well you'd need to heat it, at least during the cold months, they are tropical fish 
As long as you keep the water clean, with the temp around 78*F-80*F, and give him/her things to explore(plants, decor ect.) you should have a happy healthy betta.
As long as you keep the water clean, with the temp around 78*F-80*F, and give him/her things to explore(plants, decor ect.) you should have a happy healthy betta.
Well, whenever mine see me they swim around hoping for food, and if taken care of are quite active... they also know who their owner is after a while, very smart little guys.
I personally like female bettas more than males, they seem more energetic and are alot less-likely to rip/hurt their fins.
I personally like female bettas more than males, they seem more energetic and are alot less-likely to rip/hurt their fins.
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Shanks, since you are wondering how active bettas are, I thought I’d share a tip you might find interesting. I had a blue male betta back in 2004. Every so often I would place a mirror up against the glass of his tank and as soon as he saw his reflection he would swim right up to it. He would fan his fins really wide and put on a show. After a minute I would slowly pull the mirror back away from his tank so my betta didn’t become confused that the “other betta” disappeared. He’d see it slowly go further and further away from him. I think it might have actually boosted his confidence because he had successfully defended his territory from the betta in the mirror. I don’t know if female betas do this same behavior. Does anybody think this could be harmful to a betta, or is it a form of enrichment by encouraging natural behaviors?
here he is looking at his reflection, sorry about all the bubbles in the picture
here he is looking at his reflection, sorry about all the bubbles in the picture
i used to do that to my male betta and he'd go nuts!!! my female betta though is very active and is constantly swimming around looking and exploring. I also love female bettas more, they can be so pretty and are very overlooked in the petstores.
I am intrigued after reading the above comments about female bettas. I think it’s very interesting that people seem to enjoy the females. I don’t know if it has been the same in other states, but the big name pet stores in my area didn’t start offering female bettas for sale until the last year or two. Maybe I’ll have to adopt a couple of them some day in the future. I've only had experience with the males.
GuppyLure, get either 1 female per tank or 3 or more. They'll need to establish a pecking order, and it's too rough on the loser if there's only 2.
I have 1 male in a 5 gallon and he's the most active I've ever seen! But no, I wouldn't say they're as active as guppies or goldfish. For a 2 gallon, I'd say 1 betta OR 2 or 3 male guppies OR 3 to 5 male Endler's livebearers. All of these need heaters. No female guppies or Endlers because you don't have room in there for offspring and guppies can have up to 100 and Endler's up to 40 in each batch! And you could add a snail or shrimp. The Endler's would eat the baby shrimp but not the adults, guessing guppies would, too.
I have 1 male in a 5 gallon and he's the most active I've ever seen! But no, I wouldn't say they're as active as guppies or goldfish. For a 2 gallon, I'd say 1 betta OR 2 or 3 male guppies OR 3 to 5 male Endler's livebearers. All of these need heaters. No female guppies or Endlers because you don't have room in there for offspring and guppies can have up to 100 and Endler's up to 40 in each batch! And you could add a snail or shrimp. The Endler's would eat the baby shrimp but not the adults, guessing guppies would, too.
