Devon

Freeze-dried blood worms are fine and bettas think they are really spoiled when they get them. It is best to feed them 2-4 worms soaked a few minutes in water ahead of time... the only reason people say not to give them dried ones is because they expand in their bellies... soaking them for 3-5 minutes before you give it to them takes care of that.
My bettas get tropical fish flakes in the morning and blood worms at night, with garlic once a week and the occasional pea. They all seem very happy and healthy with this.

All the dividers I've seen can be cut to size.

xSweeneyx

Great! I think I'm going to get a male and a female tonight, so they're not flaring at each other day and night. And divide a ten gal.

By the way, has anyone had any luck breeding bettas? I doubt I will breed mine, since it sounds really hard, but I'm curious to see if anyone here has

Oh, and also, this is probably a stupid question, but, if I get a filter, and place it on one side, will the other side get filtered as well?

MinxMermaid

its so funny how the newbies always ask about breeding before you even figure out how to take care of ONE! one step at a time..... just put the breeding question OUT OF YOUR MIND as IMPOSSIBLE if you're not super experienced.

a male will most likely still flare at the female, as in showing off and such and sometimes a M/F divided can be more stressful for the fish.
each fish seems to have different personalities and you won't know till you try. M/M could be Ok, could be bad, same for M/F. you just never know.

if you have flaring problems, put plants and distractions between.

if you're getting the 10 gal, then there are dividers for that but if you get the 6.6 bookshelf, you have to modify the 10gal divider.

as for the filter, we ended up having to add a small filter to the non filtered side as it seemed that water was stagnant. we added a tiny elite hang inside back filter, and that works great and it has adjustable flow.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

xSweeneyx

I was just curious....honest....
Anyways, I'm getting him tonight! I'm soo excited!

Amanda

Good luck! I have a divided 10 gal., take a look at my pics if you want to see how they look or get an idea.

MinxMermaid

no problem! i don't know near enough about it, i just see all the same stuff everyone posts over and over when people inquire about breeding bettas, that it takes thousands of dollars hundreds of tanks to separate them, and lots of space and lots of money and lots of experience.

can't wait to see pics of your new baby or babies!!!

xSweeneyx

I got him! He's such a pretty boy!
I have to keep him in a small tank for now, but its not his permanent home.
Any ideas for names?

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Lucy

I love his colors! He's so pretty.
What size tank is he in? Is it cycled?

xSweeneyx

Right now, he's in a 2.5 gal, and its cycled
But I have to make the trip to Wal-mart to get the 5 gal tank I want.
He seems happy though, I think I already see a small bubble nest

Lucy

That's great! Had to ask, you know how it is. lol

While your there, check out their 10g kit and 5g mini bow I think they run about the same amount and gives me swim surface.

MinxMermaid

the first word that came to mind for a name was,

Twilight

he's beautiful

sirdarksol

A beautiful fish!

To answer a few questions: Bloodworms are a great treat for bettas, and soaking them in water (or garlic juice) prior to feeding will help with the problems as Devon suggested.
I would get a high-quality betta food, either flake or pellet form, as the primary food. I use OmegaOne betta flakes. Others here, I believe, use one of the Hikari foods.

As far as breeding goes, I wouldn't say "put it out of your mind."
However, here's a basic list of what you'll need to raise a brood of bettas:
Patience and attentiveness. Both male and female need to be very carefully prepared for breeding, and once they are introduced, you need to watch, net in hand, to separate them if one gets too violent. I've heard of people losing one or the other when violence broke out between the young couple.
A room that you can heat to 80+ degrees. I'll get to the reason for this in a moment.
A lot of shelves in said room. I'll get to this when I get to the 80+ degrees thing.
A hundred or more containers to keep the juveniles in. Okay, so the shelves are to hold the containers, and the heated room is to keep the containers at an appropriate temp. You could heat each individual container, but it would be really expensive to do so.
Several hours a day to change water. Because it would be really expensive to filter each container, the most cost effective way is to change out some of the water from each container every day.
People willing to buy the spawn. It would be unfair to keep all of the bettas in the containers you got (unless you can afford a hundred or so 5g+ tanks), so having people ready to buy at least some of them is a good idea.
A ready supply of food, likely brine shrimp. This one can be pretty easy. There are ways to set up a brine shrimp hatchery, or you can buy them frozen.

As you can see, it's a pretty daunting list. This doesn't mean that a beginner can't do it. There are some people who throw themselves into any hobby head first and succeed at it. If you've got the dedication and money to do it (I don't ), it is one of the best ways to learn something.

Dino

There are no stupid questions if you are truely seeking knowledge.
I applaud your efforts to learn more about your fish.
No one can ever know everything there is to know about any species, let alone the whole hobby.

Devon

I love the colours -- blue, green, red & gold, and that proud noble face, he reminds me of a Mayan warrior... congrats on your new finbaby!

mrsmuffin

Very pretty! Congrats on your new addition.

ThisGuy

Very nice colours.. beautiful fish.. congrats

Darlene

Beautiful betta, congratulations.

xSweeneyx

Thank you everyone!
Any idea what kind of betta he is, if he is a certain kind?

And thank you for the info everyone!