Good article on Bettas in TFH

"swarvegorilla" wrote in message
u...
Sorry Köi-Lö.... but this person is correct.
I have captured betta in Thailand and Malaysia.
I have seen the biotypes and I have bred (and more important RAISED) both
bubble nesters and mouth brooders.

I bred bettas in the 1960s. We kept them in whatever we could get our hot
little hands on - from small tanks to jars to old goldfish bowls etc. I
didn't say she was *wrong* that bigger tanks are"better"... just that few
people keep them that way. The only heated filtered tanks we had were for
the breeding pairs and fry. They lived long healthy lives because we kept
them clean and well fed.

THEY NEED HEATED TANKS TO PROSPER.

Only if your apartment or house is cold. Most of us here in the USA have
central heating.

A bit of filtration helps a lot too.

Trying to filter anything but a tank is difficult. Most filters are too
powerful for a jar or gallon tank.

Now if your in the tropics your alright and can get away with a little
bottle.
But for the best results filtration (heck a good vege filter CAN work) and
heating are the go.

I'm not aware of what a verge filter is. I tried a Palm Filter on a 1g jar
and it didn't work. Even that made too much current. And the jar still had
to be cleaned two or three times a month.

I'd like to add that humidity is important as well. Perhaps more important
than people realise.
Betta may endure a fair amount of abuse and they may linger on for longer
at cold temps.

What do you mean by colder temps? Mine live over 4 years at room temps. We
keep our home at 76F in the winter. Days are warmer when the sun shines in.
There are no heaters that I have ever seen that are safe for gallon
jars/tanks.

But they are not the same happy active hunter unless they have their warm
water.
I sell so many of these fish. Everyone is always so confident that they
are so easy.
It truely is difficult to make people understand, they only have one
weakness.
And thats little containers with unstable temperature.

Here again. That may depend on where the person lives and how cool they
keep their home. If they lack central heating or keep their home in the 70F
range the betta may have a problem. I never lived in such a cool home. How
many people spending $2.99 for a betta are going to pay another $40 or more
for a tank, heater and filter? If it were a legal requirement the betta
trade would quickly die out. So I'm not saying it's wrong or bad
information as it "all depends" as they say........

Besides betta's in cold water are bloody boring. Half the time ya need to
give them a poke to see if their dead or not.
The same betta in a nice heated, filtered and planted out tank is an
active and infinitely happier fish.
Depends what you want, and sadly most people just want a bunch of red or
green fins suspended in a cup of water.

That is sad but it's true. Most were sold to people as a pet for their
child anyway. The parents showed little interest. I remember reading in a
TFH (I think) magazine that most fish are dead within weeks of leaving the
wholesalers and pet stores. I'm sure that included bettas. Over the years
I saw many badly neglected fish of all kinds in heated, filtered tanks.
They're no guarantee the owner will be caring no matter what they spend on
their hobby. The novelty wears off and the neglect starts.

doesn't do it for me, I like to see in a tank what I have seen in the
wild.
only it's better in a tank.... these things are VERY bird shy hey, very
big on lurking under floating weeds and stuff.

Anyway enuf of the troll bull****
I gave you a hundred chances koi-lo
this newsgroup is for helping fish keepers
it's not for petty flame wars

A flame thread takes *TWO* to burn as I'm sure you already know. Sometimes
it's the WAY people post things more than WHAT they post.

If you can't have a dam conversation without screaming troll left right
and centre..... well you deserve to be in my killfile with all the other
idiots slandering you.
It's a lot of work filtering out the real posts from the crap.

We all have the same problem.

Which is a shame as this was once a hangout of a lot of guru's.
Tis a shame when people let themselves be brought down to the level of
those who seek only to be idiots.

Disagreeing with someone isn't being an idiot. These are discussion boards
after all.

They always beat ya with experience.

Not everyone's experience is the same. My bettas do fine in unfiltered and
unheated jars, bowls, whatever....... :-)

so ya sorry but maybe we meet elsewhere.
plonk

--
KL....
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*