Hello from Texas!!

[Spazzfish]

Hello everyone i am spazzfish you can call me spazz for short i have two betta fish: spazztic aka Batman a blue green crowntail with red in his tail he swims around his ten gallon tank spazzing out and Iradesence (Ira for short) i know this sound weird but she will change from a pale purple with darker stripes to pinkinkish purple with blue fin tips she lives in a 1 gallon vase inside spazz's ten gallon tank so her water stays warm. I tried swiching them out but But spaz looked very anoyyed and Ira looked lost so i swiched them back and everyone is happy. (i keep a small moon rock cave at the bottom of her vase so she can hide)

I have some quick questions sense i am new to betta keeping:
1. My betta swims in the filter's current? Ive read things that warn against strong filters but mine swims into it on purpose -_- when i turn it of he hovers under the lip like "where the heck the fun go ?" Is this ok or should i be concerend?

2. I want to add a small school of fish (neons right?) ghost shrimp and nerite snail to keep him company this will not stress him out right? He seems very passive i have my female in a vase in his tank and he just flirts with her every now and then, never aggressivelyjust sorta "whats up, babe?"

3. How much shoul i feed him he is still small about an inchish not including his tail i have 'tetra betta floating betta pelets with color in hancecers' it says feed in him 3-4 pelets twice a day but i know thats to much so i have been feeding him less than that and the female less than him he is currrently on a day fast until his belly gets back to normal i was scared out of my mind when i came home and he was fat as a goldfish! I dont want swim bladder so how much should i feed them.(i would bave no problem feeding them twice a day)
thanks in advance.

[Gehenna]

Welcome to the forums. soak yourself in info here, and feel free to post questions and doubts, plenty of awesome members and very knowledgeable too!.

As for your betta swimming to the current of the filter, yeah, mine does it too (i had to reduce the power of it as in the beginning it was too strong). I turn the filter off when i feed him so his food does not disappear, but once he is done eating he swims infront of the nozzle and looks at me like "well, whatcha waiting for?" and turn the filter back on, he swims against the current, with the current, through the current and sometimes just vigorously keeps himself in one spot in a C shape as the current hits him. It is awesome to see him enjoy like that.

Just make sure the current created by the filter is not too strong, or make the current deflect against some part of the tank he is in. But by the sound of it, you got a daredevil of a betta, heheh.

There's a post here somewhere about companions suitable for bettas, some bettas don't care much about company, other bettas attack the companions, it depends on the personality of each of them.
If after reading about companions and you get some, leave them at first on their bag in the tank and see how the betta reacts. I think that would be a safe way to see if he will want someone else sharing the tank.

Feeding, hmm.. i read bettas are little pigs and will gorge themselves on food, if you feel pellets are too big you might try flakes or micro pellets (got a small bottle of them when i bought my IQ3 aquarium, and most times normal pellets tend to be too big for smaller fish, and might be contributing to the bloated look you noticed, the pellets absorb water and tend to puff).

I feed my betta twice a day, in the morning and after i got home from work, a way to see how much to feed him (or at least the way i do it, and probably the wrong way to go at it) is to compare the size of the fish, imagine the size of his stomach and drop an amount of food of that size or smaller. I read about giving a betta food and see how much it ate, and keep giving them once or twice a day the same amount each time.

Sorry if it was a wordy post Spazz :)

And please, to the other members, correct me if i am wrong (most likely i am) as i am new to betta keeping also (couple of months, but i read a lot of the posting s here on betta care) and the stuff i posted here is mostly by observing my own betta.

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[indjo]

Hi Spazz, welcome to the forum.
I'm not too good at compatibility and feeding since I hardly think about them with my fishy friends. You can check out the sections on the topic.

As for the current, as long as there's a place where he can rest or avoid the current, it is fine. My pumps are all in full thrust but there are places for them to rest.

[Spazzfish]

Thank you guys for the ibformation it was very helpful i recently put in three corycats they are so cute! My betta tries to chase them but they are to fast and they are pretty good at hiding

[mjoy79]

Welcome! I assume you're in South Texas? :)

[Spazzfish]

east texas actualy just the part that never gets snow lol

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and to the wonderful world of Betta keeping......so glad you found us and joined our Betta keeping community......

Look forward to seeing pics and hearing more about your Betta adventures....

[MistersMom]

keep in mind a bettas tummy is about the size of its eye-ball O.o , WELCOME, annnnnnnnnnnnnd you may wonna eventually buy a heater for your female and maybe a kritter keeper or tank, so she has more space to move around! :) And they like hidey holes and plants, fake or real, won't matter, you should post a picture of your bettas and tank so we can all see them!

[Spazzfish]

Oh i forgot to give you Ira's back story my mom brought her homefrom walmart and stuck her in a vase (I was horrified but thats my moma) . Since i have a male in my ten gallon i odviously couldn't just stick her in there so i put her vase in the heated tank so her water stays a desired temrature and i do 1/4 water change a day and completely change it on the weekend) a she has large smoothblack rocks that she likes to hide in(i baught her a moon rock cave so she could hide but she insists on hiding in the rocks and completely ignors it so i took it out to give her more fin room) i also keep the water leval in her vase higher than in the main tank so she can hide up there too.