Ideal Temperature for Bettas?

Hello All-

Over the years, I've had about 5 betta fish. The last 4 I've kept in a 5 gallon tank, alone, with heater, filter etc. I do water changes once a week and feed a varied diet. I also have live plants. However my bettas have only lived for about 1 1/2 years (I had one that lived 2 1/2 years). I really want to get them to live longer and I know a lot live until 3 years. I did some research and realized the nano tank I was using may not have had the best filtration. I upgrade to a 10 gallon for the betta I just bought 2 days ago. Figure I can control the filtration etc. Might add some nerite snails.

Question I have for those who are experienced betta keepers and have had them live a long live (over 2 years). What temperature do you keep them at? I know the range is 78-82. I feel mine have been in the 82 range more frequently for a few reasons.. my apartment gets hot and I cant control the heat.. most heaters heat up a 5 gallon quite quickly and just stay at 82.

I've read that keeping them warmer speeds up their metabolism and ultimate speeds up (shortens) their life span. Wondering if I would try and stick to the 78 range.

 

Mine are at 78 right now, mainly because the only heaters i could find that didn't take up the whole tank were presets. They seem to do quite well. 78-80 is what all my bettas have been at, most have lived a few years.

 

Hi,

I like to keep my temp around 79 to 80. I live in Louisiana, so it's hot for a good portion of the year. I started out trying to use those preset heaters, and found them to be horrible. That's when I switched to adjustable. And my tanks are all 5 gallons, so on the small side.

I think that bettas that you can get from a breeder vs bettas from a big chain pet store may live longer. They aren't mass bred, so not as many genetic issues if the parent fish are really healthy.

 

Hi,

I like to keep my temp around 79 to 80. I live in Louisiana, so it's hot for a good portion of the year. I started out trying to use those preset heaters, and found them to be horrible. That's when I switched to adjustable. And my tanks are all 5 gallons, so on the small side.

I think that bettas that you can get from a breeder vs bettas from a big chain pet store may live longer. They aren't mass bred, so not as many genetic issues if the parent fish are really healthy.

Thats what i hear, but all my bettas have come from petco or petsmart i still say a lot of it is in the care.

 

Mine are at 78 right now, mainly because the only heaters i could find that didn't take up the whole tank were presets. They seem to do quite well. 78-80 is what all my bettas have been at, most have lived a few years.

It's been a few years, so I don't remember the name of the company, but I bought a few Eheim heaters for 5 gallon tanks from an online store that sold mostly equipment for saltwater tanks.

 

My old apartment faced west and south, so the room with the fish was always very warm - too warm. Often over 30C in summer. I had heaters but set them for the low side of the temperature range for each tank so they’d only come on when we got the winds from the west that sometimes made the room very very cold - which happened periodically through late fall and winter.

Now I am in a new place - facing east and south. It is nowhere near as warm as the old place was so I will be needing heaters, but for now, it’s summer and warm enough that the fish are ok without them.

Most of my fish gear got packed and is in storage and I am having to downsize a lot of it - but there are heaters in there and if they’re not big enough, oh well, off to the store or amazon or something, right?

I found that bettas did ok with the very warm temperatures and were ok down to about 76 so long as that didn’t last too long. I had preset heaters in their tanks that would come on if it dropped to 75 and that was what I could get so it had to do. But they had very few days where the temperature was below 80.

 

THank

Hi,

I like to keep my temp around 79 to 80. I live in Louisiana, so it's hot for a good portion of the year. I started out trying to use those preset heaters, and found them to be horrible. That's when I switched to adjustable. And my tanks are all 5 gallons, so on the small side.

I think that bettas that you can get from a breeder vs bettas from a big chain pet store may live longer. They aren't mass bred, so not as many genetic issues if the parent fish are really healthy.

Thank you for your reply. I've actually have two from breeders and the rest from Petco. One of my breeder fish lasted a little over 2 years... the other one just died at about 1 year 3 months and I got him when he was very young. He was small.. so probably still technically a baby.
Thank you everyone for your replies. Trying to keep mine set between 78-80 going foward.