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.

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

Speak Soon,