I’ve always enjoyed keeping fish. They’re fun, relaxing to watch and beautiful to have around. They remind one of the amazing array of aquatic life across the planet. Though I’ve never ventured into keeping a saltwater aquarium, I’ve had a decent variety of freshwater fish over the years: from the goldfish I rescued from zoology class in high school after its under-the-microscope ordeal to an array of neon tetras and glass catfish. I learned the hard way that it wasn’t wise to put platies in a 5-gallon aquarium after the pet-store purchase suddenly produced a bunch of live young. I had a great golden snail, named Boutros Boutros-Snail, who grew to the size of a plum before he passed away after a couple of years. The next snail I got, though, a blue snail, began reproducing on its own and the flood of baby snails broke my filter pump and killed the other fish.
But my tried and true favorite has been the betta, or Siamese fighting fish. You know, those poor little guys kept in the cups in pet stores.
My first betta lived for about three years after I freed him from one of those dastardly little cups. The bowl I kept Muqtada al-Fish in wasn’t that big, but he was a gentle, leisurely guy who seemed happy blowing bubble nests all day long. I’d put him back in the pet-store cup to clean the bowl, then refill with bottled spring water.
Having a tank with a broken filter pump thanks to the breeder snail, I thought about putting a betta in there. Inspired by a nice clearance section at a pet store, though, I got a fresh 2.5 gallon tank for the new little guy. It had a clear lid to prevent him from jumping out, yet by removing the filter pump at the back there was a nice air vent for him to enjoy. A fold-down LED light at the top switched from daylight, to night-light, to off.
I went straight to the bottom of the pet store’s high stack of dastardly little cups to find a spirited little guy wanting to get the hell out. I brought the half-moon blue-red betta home and, continuing political tradition, named him Recep Tayyip Finnogan.
I have the tank up on a counter near a sink for easy water changes. Recycling out spring water weekly costs about a buck a week, with a full water change less often. I put in silk plants — gentler against his delicate fins — in an arrangement by which he can take cover under some and sit on the leaves of others, which I see him doing now and again. He prefers the betta pellets over freeze-dried bloodworms, though I keep both around. He knows when it’s feeding time for the other animals it’s time to get some pellets, too.
What a friendly little guy. Comes up to the side of the tank to say “hi,” and is super-curious. Definitely a recommended fish.
Neat
Unlike male bettas, you can keep female bettas together; they don’t fight (only the males fight). Although their fins are not as long as males’, you can get a nice rainbow mix of colors.
There’s a beta-male joke in there somewhere!
I’m a long time fish keeper, with 120 gallon fresh water tank for my angels, loaches, iridescent, ghost knife, plecko, leporinus, red tail shark, pictus cat, and a few others I don’t remember what they are called. I have a dedicated 38 gallon just for my tetras, I love how they shcool up and swim together, and it is interesting to note which ones will cross party lines and hang with different fish from themselves. And I have a 20 long tank for my Albino African Claw foot frogs, they are hilarious to watch. My favortie daily chore is to feed my felines, then my fish, and I love feeding my ghost knife blood worms by hand, he will swim in to my curled palm and eat the worms from my fingers. I have never had the priviledge of owning a beta, but like you I have always felt their pain in their little glass jar prisons.
It’s harder than you’d think to shoot into an aquarium isn’t it?
A couple of tips for you…
1. Clean the glass, dried water spots really show up in the photo if you use a flash.
2. Shoot at an angle to the glass so the flash doesn’t bounce back into the lens.
Happy shooting, bettas are a fine subject, really pretty fish.
Great piece.
Same situation here. Felt sorry for one of those little ‘megamart-fish-in-the-cups’ and he went home with a spacious 2 gallon mansion (cue studio audience : ooohhh)!
He’s smart and lively and brightens up the room for sure.
Still don’t feel right that he’s all alone. But I’m worried that he’ll kill anything else I might put in there. Somehow it just seems wrong keeping him in solitary.
Only true animal lovers know that even fish deserve to be happy and loved.
I used to keep a salt water tank, going out onto the reef on weekends to capture new creatures. I loved the colorful lionfish, but they required live food. It was sometimes easier to bring in new fish, enjoy them for a few weeks, then release them back into the ocean and replace with new “guests.” It is difficult to supply the exact food and other requirements for strange fish, but if they are only rotated into the tank for a short time they would suffer no harm.
The invertebrates were the most interesting. I once had a tulip cone shell in my aquarium. When reaching into the tank I had to use care though as the tulip cone snail has a poison sting that could kill a human. At night it became active and would patrol the tank, sneaking up on sleeping fish, stinging them, then opening up a huge mouth and swallowing them whole– fascinating. I didn’t realize all of this was going on in my tank until one night I happened to look in just as the cone was swallowing its prey. I wondered why small fish were disappearing in my aquarium.
The big problem was maintaining the proper salt balance, and I found it easier to just siphon off a few gallons each week and go out to the bay and bring in new water. That was a lot of work, and after a few years I finally gave it up.
Passenger -
Don’t be worried. Beta’s are perfectly peaceable with other species of fish. They save their aggresion for their own kind.
True. Further beware that, not only are Bettas not aggressive to other species, some of my killies chewed off the fins of my wife’s Betta. Another source of marital discord.
I’ve kept many Bettas over the years in my community tank. I have only seen one act aggressive towards another fish. A red one I had took exception to a red swordtail I had. But this was limited to a flaring of the gills whenever they crossed paths. He never did anything else. The swordtail was oblivious. Other than that, they swim about peacefully and pay no attention to other species. Bettas are more likely to be sinned against than sinning since their fins are waving invitations to nip and during the feeding frenzy of the other fish, the more sedate Bettas are liable to simply be knocked out of the way.
For added fun, hold up a little mirror to them.
“Muqtada al-Fish”. It is to laugh.
Tried keeping jellyfish last year. There is a company in California that sells the special tank and the jellies. Very cool with color changing light and everything but lots of work and expensive because they are very sensitive so they kept dying.
Now I just have a desktop 6 gal freshwater tank with mollies and a few snails. I like the snails most. Named the yellow one buttercup. She is my racing snail . If there was a snail Olympics I would enter her.
Always liked fish. I enjoy fishing for fun and one of the best parts is learning about the different types and how they breed, eat and behave. The only secret of fishing I know is ” fish where the fish are” which is not so easy because where they are and what they are doing is changing with the season. Around here they are starting to move a bit as the water warms and breeding will start soon.
In one month the bluegills in the lake behind my house will start the routine. Males will make a round nest by swishing their tails and try to attract a female. She is swimming nearby and will lay her eggs down in one of those little circles. Then she goes out to party with the girls while he guards the nest. Can’t catch them then. You can drop a live wiggly worm right in front of the guys and they will not bite. Go for the smallmouth Bass who are suckers for anything. A treble lure with not too much bling and tipped with something yummy works.
Anyway what I like most about fish is that you play by their rules, not what I think. Also use purple bait for some reason. When that does not work switch to red, or green…maybe try a spoon or Rapela or just open another beer and call it a good day.