A Breeding Betta Fish Question: How Many Days Can We Be Away From Home And Still Be Successful?

Question:

Hi, my daughters just bought your ebook (nice!), because they are wanting to sell Bettas to the local petshop, who are needing a good supply of 50 per week. My question is, how many days can we be away from home at a time, and still be successful at this fish operation? Thanks!

Tara in Kansas

Answer:

@Tara: Glad to hear about the purchase Tara! Your family is stepping into a very fun project.

To answer your question regarding time away, you should be safe to go about your daily routines during breeding. The only times that you should remain around is during the early fry stages. They will require constant care during these sensitive periods.

We don't recommended staying away for long periods of time until the fry are past the 'fry' stage. Betta fish grow quickly so you can plan periods between breeding where your family can go away on vacation. You shouldn't plan any breeding if you expect to be away for more than a day.

Outside of the fry stages you should only leave your (adult)Betta fish alone for a couple of weeks max. Keep in mind they will require regular feeding and tank cleaning.

After a few successful breedings you'll get an idea of how things flow and when the best times are to be around and when you can skip out for a bit.

All the best to you and your daughters on your new business adventure!

Betta's and Filters

"XxKitKatxX said...

Hi =] I have a question- I'm getting a Betta fish in January and I'm planning to buy an Eclipse 6 tank with filtration. I had a Betta in the past before in a large bowl and it was a lot of work keeping it clean, so this is why I'm thinking about the tank with a filter. Would this be a good idea? Please let me know!Thanks =]By the way- I also have a Betta blog! Check it out =)"

Having a tank with a filter for your Betta fish can be safe. You have to make sure however, that any filtering system does not continuously cause ripples and waves on the surface of the water. Why? Remember your Betta is a surface breather. It has to come up to the surface air to breathe. When the surface water is rapid and splashes this can cause water to choke your Betta when she comes up for air, possibly drowning her.

The Eclipse series tanks are very nice tanks for small aquariums. Just be sure to ask your local pet store to help you select the proper filtration system and you should be good to go! Remember the less surface waves and splashes the better.

Best of luck!

Where'd The Betta Go?

Here's a little Betta story a colleague shared with me today. We'll call it, ' The Mystery of the Disappearing Betta Fish'.

So I'm sitting in my office this morning when I hear a knock at the door. "Hey!, have I told you about how my Betta fish disappeared for almost a month and now has miraculously reappeared?"

"No," I told him. So off he went with his story.

"About a month ago as I was walking by my fish tank I had noticed that the Betta Fish was missing!" "Honey! Do you know what happened to our Betta?" She replied back saying she had no idea, "Maybe one of the other fish ate him? That's just life in the fish tank, I guess."

After hearing his wife's response, my colleague simply shrugs his shoulders, still unsure of what has happened to his Betta.

Let me explain his tank a bit before I continue. He has a 40 gallon tank. In his tank he has some snails, 1 male Betta Fish, 1 shark, and 2 goldfish. Now, he doesn't always listen to me when I tell him to be careful mixing them all together...but that's another story. Ok, now back to the orginal story.

"So about 2 days ago, I went into the tank to clean out the filter and pump. As soon as I turned off the system, out popped this blue streak from behind the Sea Shell we have in the tank! I didn't know what it was at first. Giving it a double take I realized it was my Betta Fish! Hahah. The darn thing must have been hiding in the shell when we come around and leave on the pump system! And here I had thought he was dead or missing or something!"

We both had a pretty good laugh about it. It was a good story. A Betta fish disappearing for almost an entire month and then suddenly reappearing? Good story indeed.

Now, did you catch the small hints to good Betta care? Here they are:

1. Be careful of the types of fish you mix your Betta Fish with.
2. Always make sure that you give your Betta some place to hide if he/she needs to 'escape'.
3. Pumping systems that move the water rapidly around the tank is a bad thing for a Betta for 2 reasons.

• a. Betta fish are surface air breathers. Pumping systems in your typical fish tanks swoosh the water around to produce air bubbles and oxygen in the water. This oxygen is how other fish breathe through their gills. 'Waving surfaces' makes it more difficult for Betta's to breathe without the possibility of getting water into their breathing systems.

• b. Betta's prefer still, calm waters. Constant moving water can really stress a Betta fish out.

Recommended Product:

I hope you enjoyed the story and maybe even learned a thing or two about better Betta Care.

Speak Soon,

A Betta Video

Here's a beautiful little orange betta for you to check out. Although, I do wish that the owner would put him in a larger tank.

Fishy Cain

Post Your Betta Questions

Hi again everyone. Thank you for everyone that has sent in their Betta Questions, but what about everyone else?

If you have a Betta question. Any question. You can ask it by making a comment to this post. This way everyone can see your questions. So start posting your Betta questions now and I will do my best to answer the most popular questions.

So what's on your mind? Post your Betta question today!

What's Your Top 2 Betta Questions?

What's your top 2 Betta questions?

Ok, I know this may produce an explosion of postings so I'd like to limit the questions to your top 2 only. Plus, please read through everyone else's postings and only post your question if it has not been posted by someone else.

Post your top 2 Betta questions. I'll sift through your postings and produce an answer report for the top few questions!

That's it! A free report to answer your top questions!

Once we get a good number of postings I'll get started right away. So, what's your top 2 betta questions?

Poll Results: How Many Betta Fish Do You Own?

Last months Poll Results are now in!

We asked all of you how many betta fish do you own? Thank you to everyone who posted to the poll. And here are your results:

I own 0 betta: 5% of you don't own a betta fish.
I own 1 betta: 41% own 1 betta fish.
I own 2 betta: 41% own 2 betta fish.
I own 3+ betta: 11% own 3 or more betta fish.

If you missed out on our poll you can still leave a comment. So, how many betta fish do you own?