Simese cyberAquarium, bettatips

This page is the place for Betta fanatic to share their experience. If you have some interesting experienced, from reading books or your own observational experiences. Please mail to us, we will attach your experience to this page.

New comer to Betta breeding may find some difficulties with the male Betta not willing to mate. Though, he/she has prepared the breeding tank well or even very well. Despite of following every step the books ask you to. But your Betta does nothing except build his bubble nest and never goes behind it. The female has come to entice him but he chases her cruelly. Oh god, after 5 days he still nesting.

Now here's the secret, before you sends the male back to the breeding tank, let the male fight with another male about 5 - 10 minutes, tail and fin may tear off but do not worry it will grow again later. When you send the male back to the female, he will mate immediately. My assumption is that the instinct of male Betta is fight for living and mating.

Some female really scare of the male, may be she have some very bad experienced from the male. When you put them together instead mating, she always runaway whenever the male approaches. The female is NOT CONDITION for MATING.

To solve this unexpected problem, you should prepare the female well before allowing her to mate. Place the pair in separated bottle; use a piece of cardboard to block the view so they don't see each other. 3 times a day, each time only half an hour remove the cardboard and let them spar. Do this for about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks you can see that the female flaring her fin to male. The next day transfer the pair to a square glass tank about 12" * 20" * 10". The female will approach the male, the male will get excited, flaring and showing off, some even starts to build the nest (in Thai word call Parn Pla). Let them together for 10 minutes. Beware not to let the male attack the female, then remove him back to his bottle. Keep doing this for 7 days. The female totally acquainted with the male and scaring symptom diminished. You can also observe that eggs in an ovum increase rapidly and the belly becomes slightly yellow. On the next day put the female into the bottle and place the bottle in the middle of the breeding tank, put some floating plant into the tank for the male to build bubble nest. The male will flare its fin around the female and quickly builds the nest. On the fourth day put the female with the male, they would mate within 1 hour. Some females even help male collecting the eggs into the bubble nest.

Keep affected Betta into small glass containing half a liter of water with a dry banana leaf feed your fish as usual. You will see that the water turn into tea like color. The water will get a bad smell, full of dust and smeary. Just leave it as it is. From the fourth to the seventh day you will find the swollen eyes on the fish will be recover.

One day you may notice that your lovely Betta has change his swimming style from a smart gently movement to be a missile thrusting like. Some time he is swimming hurry to the water surface and hurry dive down then shaking head and body like a Michael Jackson’s Thriller, “Break Dance”. He is jerking, and after one or two day you may see many white spots spread over your Betta. Yes your fish has attacked by Ich (Ichthyopthirius multiflis) or white spot disease. In Thai word call this symptom of disease is “Dug Dig” means jerking disease. An experienced Betta keeper knows that he just put a drop of Methylene Blue a day, three days only his fish will be O.K. But once a Betta was attacked by Ich, he will lose his smart manner, and become weaker fish.

To prevent your Betta spoiled by “Break Dance” disease, you try to keep water’s temperature in your Betta house not change too fast. But this may not enough prevention; you should put a foot of Alpinia Galanga in your Betta bottle all the time. Alpinia Galanga do providing chemical substances of steriod, Phenolic acid, Terpenoids and others, these substances are preventing and get rid of the disease come from fungus.

Note: The tip to put Galanga I got from an old breeder words and the chemical substances of Galanga I got from somewhere in the pet magazine.

An accident may damage the fin on your beautiful Betta. Normal feeding may not be enough to cure your fish. To grow the fin back to it's former glory quickly, find some mud from the lake about half pint, put into the bottle where you keep the Betta, also put banana leaf in. Within 5 days you will find the torn fin growing rapidly back to it's former glory. After ten days shift your fish to the clean water. You will get new version of your fish, more smart and look as good as ever.

I have been reading about your experience with Betta with great happiness. I have been taking care of Betta in a Pet Shop for 13 years. I learned from my customers about using plants to make them well. Since my customer could not find the plants he used in Thailand, he picked out a plant we call Bacopa for me to use. I have tried other plants but they do not have the same effects. Most Americans feel that fighting Bettas is a cruel sport. I was one of them until I asked Thai people to tell me about Bettas. I learned that the fight is not to the death of the Bettas. I was told that the Betta that quits or swims away is taken out of the fight so that it is not killed. I learned from you that the fight is for better health and breeding. One young man told me that he conditions his Bettas before a fight by putting them in salty water. He says that it hardens the scales and that his fish are not easily injured. I found that I lost most of my Bettas when they were shipped to us during our cold months. I could not getting any help from the shipper. It was so sad to see all these beautiful fish get a white film on their bodies and eyes. They could not eat or breathe. They usually died within 48 hours. I discovered how to keep them from getting sick. The reason why the shippers could not help me is that they did not have to take the fish out of the little bags and put them into containers. The only people who know of this problem would be people who live have cold winters. Cold water carries more oxygen than warm water. I knew this but it took a long time to discover what could make that a bad problem for Bettas. I discovered that if I made up a container of mixed cold and hot water that there were tiny air bubbles in the container. They did not dissolve for days!! Those little tiny bubbles were covering the Bettas bodies and their gills. When the bubbles dissolved they caused damage to the gills. So what if I try to just use a little cold water and let it sit? Still the same problem. I tried filling the container with only hot water faucet. No bubbles!! I let the water sit till it was room temperature. The Bettas still died a few days later. I tried again. I let the water sit and filled dup the cups with warm water. I pour out the extra water from the bag and pour the Bettas into the cups of warm water. Never touching their bodies with NETS! None died. They loved the warm water! The temperature can be up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. None of them sink to the bottom. They swim around and They eat good. They did not get sick. I find that Bettas get sick if they suddenly get chilled. I tell people to keep their Bettas in the warmest and quietest place in their home. I have been doing this for many years. If someone else in the store has to put the Bettas in cups or moves the Bettas to a bright and noisy location in the store, the fish die. They think I have magic with Bettas.

The following is a Thai ancient magic verse for the fighting fish fan spell during feeding his fighter. The magic verse wills wizard your Betta to be the winner. I do not know the beginning of this verse. I get from the aquarium booklet in Thai language. I try my best afford to translate it into English verse. I know that the result is not close to the Thai language and I myself know nothing about English verse. So be please read it as a fun.

The meaning behind the verse is that, it tries to tell the fighter keeper look after his fish well. When he is feeding his fighter his eyes focusing to the fish. The spelling verse is a trick to tell the keeper should concentrating to his fighter; the fish become the center not the owner. In that moment the owner may observe the readiness of his fighter.

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???????? ?????????????? 4 ??????????
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"Na Kad Tang Ga Ka Chana
Toa Khar Mee Kham Lang Dank Phra Ya Pla Nai Maha Samut
Su Gu Yo Grade Kaw Manee Hum Haw Toa Ka Dank Krax Phet
Pu Ta Ka Ge, Keow Kaw Tank See Duj Tree Phet
Hanuman Ma Aa Au Pla Dai Mar Ron Raan Vinas Santi"

"Oom you are the real fighter, the Superior.
You are the Mighty Mega-power Worrier, the LORD of all fish in the Oceania.
Your dynamic crystal scale is as tough as armour diamond.
The four quartz teeth as sharp as Shiva's spear
Hanumana, Oh the great fish, no one can defeat you, the Destroyer."

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