Hello and baby betta

[zoomama79]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, but no where new to Betta keeping. We had taken a break from betta keeping for about a year after my last boy, Shadow Storm, died. He was a Wal-Mart betta I had for 4+ years. For years we had bettas in just about anything that would hold enough water in our house.
I took a break, but fell victim to PetCo's trap of baby bettas. I know I should not have done it, but I bought one. Some of them were already failing in health and I knew they wouldn't make it much longer, I spotted one that still looked fairly active and healthy and possibly a slight blue tint on it's other wise colorless, less than 1" body. I housed it in a 1 gallon tank with a heater. I only fill it less than half way so my baby doesn't get lost and have a hard time finding food and air. I threw in some plant bulbs to grow in the tank as well.
I've had my little one about a month now and I'm thinking it's a veiltail female, but it's going to be a very pretty one. The blue tint I thought I initially saw is developing more and the fins are developing a reddish color. I had been crushing the PetCo brand pellets (I got them because of the higher protein content and because they are smaller than any other betta pellet), now my baby is big enough to eat them whole. I also gave it a little freeze dried bloodworms and recently flightless fruit flies. I discovered that one by chance when feeding my teeny tiny toad, I threw 3 flies in to the betta tank and it devoured them. I also think it was picking/grazing stuff off the plant bulbs.

[aemaki09]

Welcome!! And congrats on your baby making it, I know it's pretty hard to keep them alive at such young ages. Do you have a pic? Sounds very pretty

[zoomama79]

It looks like it has stress bars, but those have been there since I bought it and have never changed. Everything is good with the tank and everything but I read somewhere that some juvies retain those for a while.

[zoomama79]

Ok in this pic it is a bit stressed and the colors are faded. We just had a little mishap. I was doing a water change (I use a piece of airline tubing so it won't create strong suction) and baby just darted right up the tube! I quickly pinched the tube and emptied it backwards into the tank to free it, but baby swam a bit off for a few minutes after. Hopefully there's not any lasting effects from that. I was trying to be super careful and it was like my betta aimed for the suction tube and swam up it.

[sainthogan]

Mine does that when I change the water, fortunately, she's too big to fit up the tube. I just use extra tubing for a small fitting air filter that I got at wal-mart, the hole is about a half a centimeter big, so there's no way she's getting in there.
She also likes to chase around the turkey baster when I sucking up her waste and trying to catch the waste. She has yet to succeed at this, yet she still tries. (I don't use a vacuum because I have too many plants and decorations and I'm worried about knocking the over).

Good luck on your baby, it's a cutie. I'm sure s/he'll be fine, might be traumatized for a few days, but mine survived far worse than that (although she wasn't a baby) - a jump out of her tank, a 4 foot drop and spent at least a half an hour out of water when I found her.

[zoomama79]

I hope so. We've been doing so well together. I'd hate for anything to go wrong now.

[Wendyjo]

From what I've seen they all have stripes when they're that little. Once it starts to color up you won't see them anymore.

[zoomama79]

Good to know. I've always gotten mature fish, first time with a baby. I never bred mine either. This was a totally new challenge for me.

[BeautifulBetta123]

That is so cute! Pet smart carries babies where i live it is horrible! Cutest little male crown tail was there. LOve the little guy looks like a female vt. Best of luck!

[zoomama79]

Terrible picture but you can see her colors better.