Someone told me that putting a mirror in front of a betta and letting him flare his fins at it for a few minutes a day is a good exercise for it. i have heard that bettas will crash into their tank walls to get at other bettas can happen so i know i would have to watch it but is it good to put a mirror in front of my betta for a little while and why?
Also, someone told me that a fasting day once in a while is good for a betta. Is this true? if so, how often should i let him fast?
Thanks to everyone who replies
There is nothing better than excercise for your betta. Betta's are prone to getting fat, even more so when feeding your betta's worms as worms have a high fat content and we all know bettas are not the most active fish you will find. I've had bettas for quite sometime now and even the most aggresive ones will not continue crashing into their glass tanks after the first few times they're a little smarter than that. Yes they will continuously flair at their reflection or another betta yes they will even try taking a bit by opening their mouth as wide as possible and swimming into the glass, still no problems. Personally I dont think it is a good idea to keep two male bettas next to each other for too long as they are teritorial, it does become frustrating for them having to defend their space all day long. I've also not had any betta injure itself doing this. Because I keep most of my females together and each male on it's own. So it is almost inevitable that most people will have to keep their bettas close to each other without any problems. I also have two brothers that have been kept side by side for quite some time now. Recently I have added another two younger males next to them, which are also the offspring of one of the brothers. So four males together side by side, two pairs of brothers and still no problems with them injuring themselves.
I dont skip a day, but then I dont overfeed my betta's. I feed the floating pellets once a day. Every other weekend they get either live bloodwords or live daphnia, usually I get enough to feed Saturday and Sunday. On the other weekend they get frozen white mosquito larvae, when conditioning I feed them twice a day, live food in the morning and pellets in the evening.
If you dont have a female or a few females, I suggest you do get some or one if you have the space to house them. Dont keep the male and female together, I dont even keep one male to 3-4 females. A male present with females will have the dominant female pick on all the others and there will be fin nipping in the tank. All my females can live happily together without a male hence he is kept away and on his own. Of course they will still form a pecking order and usually the largest female will be the dominant one, however when feeding they dont seem to mind eating the same food in one corner of the tank.
The easiest way of excercising your betta, without stressing (chasing it with a net) it out is to do it when feeding. My bettas will follow my fingers wherever they go, that is one way you can ge it to swim around, another way is to use a tweasers and place a bloodworm in front of the betta and move it around so it chases it. However too much teasing can lead to a very aggressive betta. Take all these factors into consideration and you will have a happy betta for a long time. Bettas also prefer brackish water, so get some bogwood and stick in the tank. Driftwood is not the same thing. If you cant get bogwood use some indian almond leaf. This will lower the ph and is ideal for betta's.
