Petco Baby Betta Care

[Sarahlydear]

So a friend of mine went to Petco and saw these poor things and trying to help bought herself two and me one.
I know, and have since explained to her, that the best thing to do is try to ignore the babies and not buy any and pray that this horrid fad dies quickly.
That being said I don't have the heart to return the little dear.

Mine looks a little under an inch, but I have no idea how old he or she is.
Is there any special thing I need to do for him or her?
I have no idea what age they are shipping them out now and what that age requires so if someone could at least give me a rough estimate?
Any help would be great.
I will add pictures in a little bit I haven't been able to take any yet.

[1fish2fish]

You'll want to put it in a heated tank, make sure the temperature is at 80* at least. Size doesn't really matter but you do need to be able to reliably heat it so I'd suggest going with a 2.5-3 gallon at least. Alternately if you have a large tank at the same temperature you can put it in a breeder's net box, personally though I'd go with a separate tank because water changes are essential to good growth.

Live foods are best but since you don't really have time to get a culture going or wait to order brine shrimp eggs here's what I suggest...
Frozen BBS (made by Hikari)... you can thaw one block and feed it 2-3 meals a day.
NLS growth formula... extra protien so it really helps.
Frozen daphnia

Once it gets a little bigger move on to crushed pellets, you can try it now and see if it'll take them but I still suggest using a more high protein food as the staple.


You want to do 100% water changes every 2-3 days but make sure you are using a turkey baster or small siphon to suck out the uneaten food every day. I suggest keeping a 5 gallon bucket full of aged water. It would be helpful if you have an extra heater to keep the water heated so you can do water changes quickly without shock but it's not totally necessary.

[Sarahlydear]

Thanks!! I have her (I think I see a egg dot thing) in a half filled 1gal, it's the only spare tank I have right now, and I'm working on the temp thing because I don't want to fry her. :p

I have some frozen bloodworms and mysis shrimp along with regular NLS pellets would those work until I can go back to the store? Either later today or tomorrow?

I can do the aged water thing but I'll have to float her in a heated tank until the heater raises the temp, I'm short on heaters and my guppies are gonna have to freeze as it is.

Thank you soo much for the info!

[Luimeril]

you can go buy a 2 gallon Kritter Keeper for around $10 at PetCo(or, if you don't wanna, another pet store. check the rodent department).. when i was raising my month-old fry, i had her in a heated 3 gallon, and did daily water changes, fed her live BBS and crushed NLS Grow pellets. it was fun watching her grow up and change.