Thursday, February 14, 2008

Betas

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I got Cameron (the 8 yr. old) a Beta for her birthday. He looks just like this except his face doesn't have a scratch on it like this beta's does. His name is Murphy Peanut.

Yes, I know, it's a funny name, but here's how he got it.

When we bought the beta, I was pretending to be the fish and I said to The Bubba, "My house is being stolen. My name is Murphy." from Home Alone when the boy called the police and said "My house is being robbed. My name is Murphy". We said "stolen" instead of "robbed" because we took the fish's whole "house" home with us.

So we called the beta Murphy.

Well, when Cameron got him, she liked the name Peanut for him, but we kept forgetting and calling him Murphy. So she named him Murphy Peanut.

So. Now Mr. Murphy Peanut is living in a five gallon aquarium with four gallons of water in it. We did some research on betas and found out that they do better in aquariums over 1 gallon than in vases.

But I was wondering a couple of things about betas that we have read different answers about:

Is it alright to keep one male and one female beta together? I have read yes and no.

How often should you feed them? I have read once a day in some places and several times a day in others.

Does anyone have pet betas who could tell us the answer? Even if you don't know the answer, feel free to leave a comment!

9 comments:

Linz said...

So I'm guessing you don't need ours? :) I'm so sorry about that delay about asking Mr. Iten about it. I've been so busy with school this week. I fed our betas everyday so I would get into the habit of feeding them with the rest of the pets. Just give them a small pinch of food and don't worry about it if you miss a day. Cameron's beta will also probably do some weird little thing if it gets hungry and hasn't been fed for a few days. Just like all other pets.

Shannon said...

Ummmm... I know nothing about fish. All mine died within a week or two of bringing them home as I grew up. Pity. But, if you want to know anything about cows I'm learning lots about them! :) I have many new little facts swimming around my head about being sickle hocked and good udder suspension. But you probably don't have udders on your beta.
Nope. Sorry. Just can't help you.
But heh, why not join in the fun and come on over and take part in my valentine's day post? My mr.linky is looking pretty lonely because all of my regular blogging friends have abandoned me today it seems. :0(

Shari said...

We have betas. We decided not to keep our female and male together to prevent babies. We feed our twice a day. We found they were sluggish with one feeding so increased it and they are pretty zippy now. Hope this helps.

Shari

Kim said...

Hi, I just came over from Mommy Life. It's funny I should see that you posted about your betta. I JUST visited a blog I had bookmarked that is only about bettas! Here is it:

Nippy Fish

When we kept bettas, we fed them a few grains of betta food twice a day. But we didn't worry if we missed an occasional feeding.

Have a blessed day!

Anonymous said...

Feed him once a day if he has aquatic plant roots to nibble on, otherwise feed him twice a day.

I'm not sure if betas are able to reproduce easily without assistance (to put it bluntly, I think the tails get in the way, just like fantail goldfish).

Lene said...

Ummm...Anonymous... How exactly do they accomplish it in the wild??? Are there wild betas? Just curious :)

trendy georgia said...

We had betas, or siamese fighters as they are also known. They are gorgeous to look at , very friendly and breed okay although you will need afemale LOL and a small breeding cage so the bubs dont get eaten.. I have seen two males togehter but I would personally never do it as they are called fighters for a reason. Something you can do to see them "show" is to hold up a mirror so they can see themselves in it. They think they are looking at another male and go all aggressive. og coursr you cant do this too often as they will eventually become traumitised but it is a party trick!! Good luck. out of all the tropicals these are my favourite fish. cheers Cheery Cherry

mama2drama said...

Female betas are very picky and to have a female reproduce you are s'posed to have a ratio of 6 males to 1 female. Otherwise it's supposed to be ok to put them together. Males are fighters tis true. But only over the females. If you have the "grainy" food you feed them every 2-3 days. Our betas lived forever!!! Believe it or not when they were in the sink (when we cleaned their aquariums) it was so big, as long as there was no female they never fought. We love having 'em!

Homeschoolin' hot-rodders said...

We loved having betas! My sons fish died in his aquarium so I am considering getting him a beta instead of more mollies. When we had ours we fed this one little pinch every morning:)

Angela

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