Bought baby betta from petco for $1, questions

[newarkhiphop]

So after my red halfmoon jaws died in a horrible water change accident this past week decided to go to a new petco and buy a new betta, was split between a couple of beautiful half moons and baby , decided to go with this yellow baby betta here and i have a couple of questions

1. do baby bettas need to be fed more often than adults?
2. should i do water changes more often? say every other day instead of twice a week? he will be kept in a one gallon unfiltered aqueon mini bow with a heater for the time bein
3. i purchased NLS betta food pellets since there smaller, but so far i put two pellets in and it seems uninterested, do i need to crush the food up in small pieces?
3. can you tell by the pics sex/fin type?

[newarkhiphop]

also i have the tank filled almost to the top, should i just have it half way filled with water??

[MrVampire181]

I'm guessing young male. The stickies in the breeding section contain more info than anyone will post here.

[Oldfishlady]

What a pretty Betta.....I would feed him/her more to get best growth/development....good quality varied diet in small frequent meals-if you have access to live foods...all the better....especially live mosquito larva if you have access to some-gather a few each day, rinse under running water-add so that he/she has to chase them.

Freshwater fish thrive with fresh water and young fish will grow better with low nitrate and DOC's.....

In a 1gal unfiltered tank (perfect btw) I would make 3 weekly water changes of 50% with 100% monthly....with adults you want to make twice weekly-1-50% and 1-100%-but with young fish and a lot of food-3 times a week....Be sure and properly acclimate to the chemistry/temp with the 100% by adding small amount of the new tank water to the holding cup over 10-15min. If you have live plant to add all the better.....

I would keep the temp at 78-80F....

It is hard to tell by the pics the sex and fin type-once you get it in the tank-use a mirror and see if you can get it to flare and snap a pic so we can see all the fins all flared out.....

Its also a good idea to exercise him/her every day too-by either using a mirror and/or placing food on the tip of a tooth pick an making him/her chase it around-also by chasing the live food will provide some exercise too.....

Good luck and look forward to watching him/her grow and develop into a beautiful Betta......

[laoshun]

yeah i noticed that petco started selling baby bettas, its quite hard to distinguish what they will grow up to become. I like that yellow on the betta!

[newarkhiphop]

Originally Posted by Oldfishlady

What a pretty Betta.....I would feed him/her more to get best growth/development....good quality varied diet in small frequent meals-if you have access to live foods...all the better....especially live mosquito larva if you have access to some-gather a few each day, rinse under running water-add so that he/she has to chase them.

Freshwater fish thrive with fresh water and young fish will grow better with low nitrate and DOC's.....

In a 1gal unfiltered tank (perfect btw) I would make 3 weekly water changes of 50% with 100% monthly....with adults you want to make twice weekly-1-50% and 1-100%-but with young fish and a lot of food-3 times a week....Be sure and properly acclimate to the chemistry/temp with the 100% by adding small amount of the new tank water to the holding cup over 10-15min. If you have live plant to add all the better.....

I would keep the temp at 78-80F....

It is hard to tell by the pics the sex and fin type-once you get it in the tank-use a mirror and see if you can get it to flare and snap a pic so we can see all the fins all flared out.....

Its also a good idea to exercise him/her every day too-by either using a mirror and/or placing food on the tip of a tooth pick an making him/her chase it around-also by chasing the live food will provide some exercise too.....

Good luck and look forward to watching him/her grow and develop into a beautiful Betta......

thanks for all the great info, yea so far his water temp is sitting @ 80 , i have tried crush NLS and Aqueon pellets in the couple of hours i have had it but has not eating yet , hopefully it will build up an appetite over night

[Orangeblood77]

Great info. I rescued a baby from Petco yesterday. I have been feeding him/her freeze dried mosquito larvae and so far so good. Mine is reddish-orange and gets after the food like it's his/her last meal.

[newarkhiphop]

Originally Posted by Orangeblood77

Great info. I rescued a baby from Petco yesterday. I have been feeding him/her freeze dried mosquito larvae and so far so good. Mine is reddish-orange and gets after the food like it's his/her last meal.

yea i woke up this morning to find all 4 pellets + 1 freeze dried bloodworm gone , just dropped a NLS pellet in there now he ate it right up

[Wolfboy51]

Are there any dangers feeding live mosquito larve? We have tonns at home.

[Oldfishlady]

Originally Posted by Wolfboy51

Are there any dangers feeding live mosquito larve? We have tonns at home.

I have been feeding mosquito larva and any other critter I collect to my fish for many, many years without problems......I use a brine shrimp net to collect-then rinse well with clean water-then feed.....