Several Questions, Take Your Pick!

Hello All!
First, thanks in advance for any responses. We've had a betta for a little over 2 months, I've done lots of reading, and I have questions in a few different areas:

MECHANICAL FILTER:
*I have an Azoo Mignon 60 in a 5 gallon tank. I've been using this tank for just under 2 months, and am putting the 2 sponges in perpendicular like it shows in this video: Mignon Filter | AZOO CORPORATION
*However, the product didn't come with those little rocks, which I assume are supposed hold the good bacteria like bio balls do. I'm thinking I should buy some? I can't find those particular rocks online, but I bet there are lots of options here. They would have to be pretty small to fit in that space. Do you recommend a particular product?
*How often do I change out the sponges? And should I change them at different times rather than changing both at once? I feel like most of the "good stuff" is in the sponges right now and I'm afraid to take them out!

FOO
*I have one betta. I have read that her stomach is about the size of her eye ball. I am feeding her 2 bloodworms (buy them frozen, feeding them thawed of course) in the morning and again at night. Is that too much? I'm thinking her eye is about the size of just one bloodworm, so maybe I should just feed her one each feeding? She always wants more, but I know fish can eat themselves to death so can't put much stock in her behavior in this area.

WATER TESTING KIT:
*This question is because I'm clumsy! I'm using the API testing kit and have managed to break two of the four glass test tubes so far. Do you set your tubes down inside anything to keep them stable? Maybe I need to cut little holes in a chunk of styrofoam or something.

ALGAE:
*The tank has just started developing little brown spots. I'm assuming it's algae, so I know I'll need to be cleaning that off. Many years ago when I had a tank with non-bettas I would get an algae eater fish. I always thought you couldn't have ANY fish in a tank with a betta but am learning that several of you are able to have other fish with them! How do I know if this could work? If there's a good article on this, could you point me in the right direction?

If you're still reading, and you want more info on this fish and her tank, here it is:
We purchased our betta Beauty from a big box pet store on 7/8/18. I didn't have her in a good environment at first (1 gallon tank, no filter) and that almost killed her. After 10 days, on 7/18/18 I moved her to her current 5 gallon tank and started using the mechanical filter a day or two later. She perked up fairly quickly and I treated the tank for ick once I realized she had it. (I did change out the filter sponges once treatment was completed.) She seems to have done pretty well since then. I test the water about every 2 weeks, and afterwards will clean the tank/change the water (I shoot for 25% but with such a small tank it's often closer to 50%) and add AquaLife Activate (Aquarium Starter/Cleaner that is sold by our locally owned Aquarium store) each time I test and clean the tank. I didn't keep track of the water testing numbers at first, but have been writing them all down since early August.

pH has consistently been 7.4
8/4 & 8/8: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate 0.0
8/20: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 0.0
9/2: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 1.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
9/17: Ammonia 0.0-0.25, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
Does it look to you like those numbers are changing like you would expect? From my reading it looks like they are changing the way they are supposed to but I expected to see bigger numbers so I'm not sure if it's looking ok or not.

Thanks again for any thoughts or advice!
Danielle

 

Okay, let’s begin.
Use seachem matrix for the biological filter media, very good product and I use it in all my tanks.
You should never need to change the sponges. Once a month swish it around in t am water to get trapped waste out so it doesn’t Leach nitrates into your tnak or clog the sponge.
Two bloodworms should be fine. I would also feed a high quality pelleted diet as bloodworms aren’t a balanced diet . Some I recommend are NLS small fish formula, big bite( forget he brand), cobalt flakes, and last omega one flakes.
With a 5 gallon the only tank mates you can get are a few snails or a few ghost or amano shrimp. A 5 gallon is too small for any other algae eating fish other than nerite snails.
And yes the readings are what is to be expected, the nitrogen cycle seems to be almost done. The reason the levels are so low is because the betta doesn’t produce much of a bioload.

 

Food- 1-2 Bloodworms is fine. You are also only supposed to feed it once or twice a week as a treat and not a staple diet.

Water testing kit- Many people have built wooden holders for their tubes. Just get a wood block and drill holes about the same size as the tubes. You can get a pack of tube replacement on Amazon or request a replacement from API.

Algae- You can keep a Nerite Snail with her. Research about them.

 

wash and rinse your sponges in tank water after you done a water change. there is no need to swap them out.

as for food, get a good quality pellet like NLS Betta formula. One pellet in the morning and one in the evening would be fine.

for the algae control, a nerite would be perfect, but don't add one until your tank is fully cycled. they come in nice different colours and are really prolific algae eaters.

 

Welcome to Fishlore Katie Dawn! Answers are between your quote in the next post!

 

Hello All!
First, thanks in advance for any responses. We've had a betta for a little over 2 months, I've done lots of reading, and I have questions in a few different areas:

MECHANICAL FILTER:
*I have an Azoo Mignon 60 in a 5 gallon tank. I've been using this tank for just under 2 months, and am putting the 2 sponges in perpendicular like it shows in this video: Mignon Filter | AZOO CORPORATION
*However, the product didn't come with those little rocks, which I assume are supposed hold the good bacteria like bio balls do. I'm thinking I should buy some? I can't find those particular rocks online, but I bet there are lots of options here. They would have to be pretty small to fit in that space. Do you recommend a particular product?
*How often do I change out the sponges? And should I change them at different times rather than changing both at once? I feel like most of the "good stuff" is in the sponges right now and I'm afraid to take them out!

I would recommend Bio Rings, just google this term but here is one: Marineland C-Series Canister Ceramic Rings Filter Media, 140 count

No need to take the sponges out. Never change the sponge. If they become disgusting, simply swish them around in some clean tank water (outside of the tank). Its a marketing ploy telling folks to change the sponges. Without the bio rings or the little porous rocks in the video, most of your beneficial bacteria are in those sponges. The black one is a carbon filter that will take out ammonia for a week or two. Then it will be useless but I assume bacteria will grow on it. Also bacterial will be growing on your baffle sponge filter.

FOO
*I have one betta. I have read that her stomach is about the size of her eye ball. I am feeding her 2 bloodworms (buy them frozen, feeding them thawed of course) in the morning and again at night. Is that too much? I'm thinking her eye is about the size of just one bloodworm, so maybe I should just feed her one each feeding? She always wants more, but I know fish can eat themselves to death so can't put much stock in her behavior in this area.

Fish can eat themselves to death, Betta will eat until the cosmos are gone. How about trying one bloodworm per meal. I doubt your Betta will starve. Also make sure you remove any left over food because too much food rotting in the tank will cause increased ammonia.

WATER TESTING KIT:
*This question is because I'm clumsy! I'm using the API testing kit and have managed to break two of the four glass test tubes so far. Do you set your tubes down inside anything to keep them stable? Maybe I need to cut little holes in a chunk of styrofoam or something.

I lay them in a soft cloth when waiting for the tests to run. But for you perhaps:



and

API Replacement Test Tubes for Aquarium Liquid Test Kits, 24 count

ALGAE:
*The tank has just started developing little brown spots. I'm assuming it's algae, so I know I'll need to be cleaning that off. Many years ago when I had a tank with non-bettas I would get an algae eater fish. I always thought you couldn't have ANY fish in a tank with a betta but am learning that several of you are able to have other fish with them! How do I know if this could work? If there's a good article on this, could you point me in the right direction?

Nerite Snails but 5 gallon is too small really to add anymore bioload. I would suggest blacking out your tank at night to reduce light and not turning on your aquarium lights. Also using a magnetic nano glass cleaner. Do you have live plants in your tank? If so once than blacking out the tank is not a good idea but as the tank cycles the live plants will out compete the algae.

Article on Brown Algae:
5 Gallon Betta Tank Full Of Brown Algae
Brown Algae And Betta General Question

If you're still reading, and you want more info on this fish and her tank, here it is:
We purchased our betta Beauty from a big box pet store on 7/8/18. I didn't have her in a good environment at first (1 gallon tank, no filter) and that almost killed her. After 10 days, on 7/18/18 I moved her to her current 5 gallon tank and started using the mechanical filter a day or two later. She perked up fairly quickly and I treated the tank for ick once I realized she had it. (I did change out the filter sponges once treatment was completed.) She seems to have done pretty well since then. I test the water about every 2 weeks, and afterwards will clean the tank/change the water (I shoot for 25% but with such a small tank it's often closer to 50%) and add AquaLife Activate (Aquarium Starter/Cleaner that is sold by our locally owned Aquarium store) each time I test and clean the tank. I didn't keep track of the water testing numbers at first, but have been writing them all down since early August.

I am glad you are now monitoring your water conditions and 5 gallon tank is minimum for a Betta. Ammonia and Nitrite levels should always be 0.0ppm. I would recommend you do 50% water changes daily. What you are doing now is a fish-in cycling. So, as long as you keep up with daily water changes of 50% so that after the water change your tank has 0 ammonia and nitrite then you will be fine. Currently your tank is not cycled to handle the nitrogen cycle. At nitrite of 1.0 your Betta's gills are hurting. What are you doing when you clean your tank? AquaLife Activate seems to only add bacteria to the water and it doesn't seem to remove chlorine from their website: AquaLife Activate Freshwater

Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle? Are you adding a water conditioner such as Tetra Safe Start or Seachem Prime to your water before adding it to the tank so that chlorine and chloramine are removed?
Please look through these forum articles and ask away. We are here to help!

Some basics on freshwater fishkeeping:

READ FIRST: Freshwater Beginner Important Topics

here is a series of posts of doing cycling with a fish in
Eeek, cycling with fish! Anything I can do to keep them alive?

Here is a welcome for all Bettae owners:
Welcome to the Betta Section!

and some general facts on Bettae:

Important Betta Topics

pH has consistently been 7.4
8/4 & 8/8: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate 0.0
8/20: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 0.0
9/2: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 1.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
9/17: Ammonia 0.0-0.25, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
Does it look to you like those numbers are changing like you would expect? From my reading it looks like they are changing the way they are supposed to but I expected to see bigger numbers so I'm not sure if it's looking ok or not.

Thanks again for any thoughts or advice!
Danielle

Can we see a picture of your aquarium and Beauty? We Looooove pix!

 

Sponges don't need to be replaced unless they are falling apart. They only need to be rinsed in old tank water during maintainence.
Bloodworms are delicious but do not contain enough nutrient to be a staple food. Good quality pellets are better, you can research on how to read the labels to choose a good quality pellets from the shop.
And I agree that nerite snail is good for algae control. Just note that females will lay eggs in the tank when happy, but the eggs will never hatch in freshwater. So you may need to scrape eggs off your tank occasionally.
If your tank doesn't have a lid, you'll need one as some bettas love to jump when they see something interesting. And nerites may get lost and stroll out.

 

Welcome to Fishlore Katie Dawn! Answers are between your quote!

Hello All!
First, thanks in advance for any responses. We've had a betta for a little over 2 months, I've done lots of reading, and I have questions in a few different areas:

MECHANICAL FILTER:
*I have an Azoo Mignon 60 in a 5 gallon tank. I've been using this tank for just under 2 months, and am putting the 2 sponges in perpendicular like it shows in this video: Mignon Filter | AZOO CORPORATION
*However, the product didn't come with those little rocks, which I assume are supposed hold the good bacteria like bio balls do. I'm thinking I should buy some? I can't find those particular rocks online, but I bet there are lots of options here. They would have to be pretty small to fit in that space. Do you recommend a particular product?
*How often do I change out the sponges? And should I change them at different times rather than changing both at once? I feel like most of the "good stuff" is in the sponges right now and I'm afraid to take them out!

I would recommend Bio Rings, just google this term but here is one: Marineland C-Series Canister Ceramic Rings Filter Media, 140 count

No need to take the sponges out. Never change the sponge. If they become disgusting, simply swish them around in some clean tank water (outside of the tank). Its a marketing ploy telling folks to change the sponges. Without the bio rings or the little porous rocks in the video, most of your beneficial bacteria are in those sponges. The black one is a carbon filter that will take out ammonia for a week or two. Then it will be useless but I assume bacteria will grow on it. Also bacterial will be growing on your baffle sponge filter.

FOO
*I have one betta. I have read that her stomach is about the size of her eye ball. I am feeding her 2 bloodworms (buy them frozen, feeding them thawed of course) in the morning and again at night. Is that too much? I'm thinking her eye is about the size of just one bloodworm, so maybe I should just feed her one each feeding? She always wants more, but I know fish can eat themselves to death so can't put much stock in her behavior in this area.

Fish can eat themselves to death, Betta will eat until the cosmos are gone. How about trying one bloodworm per meal. I doubt your Betta will starve. Also make sure you remove any left over food because too much food rotting in the tank will cause increased ammonia.

WATER TESTING KIT:
*This question is because I'm clumsy! I'm using the API testing kit and have managed to break two of the four glass test tubes so far. Do you set your tubes down inside anything to keep them stable? Maybe I need to cut little holes in a chunk of styrofoam or something.

I lay them in a soft cloth when waiting for the tests to run. But for you perhaps:



and

API Replacement Test Tubes for Aquarium Liquid Test Kits, 24 count

ALGAE:
*The tank has just started developing little brown spots. I'm assuming it's algae, so I know I'll need to be cleaning that off. Many years ago when I had a tank with non-bettas I would get an algae eater fish. I always thought you couldn't have ANY fish in a tank with a betta but am learning that several of you are able to have other fish with them! How do I know if this could work? If there's a good article on this, could you point me in the right direction?

Nephrite Snail but 5 gallon is too small really to add anymore bioload. I would suggest blacking out our tank at night to reduce light and not turning on your aquarium lights. Do you have live plants in your tank? If so once than blacking out the tank is not a good idea but as the tank cycles the live plants will out compete the algae.

Article on Brown Algae:
5 Gallon Betta Tank Full Of Brown Algae
Brown Algae And Betta General Question

If you're still reading, and you want more info on this fish and her tank, here it is:
We purchased our betta Beauty from a big box pet store on 7/8/18. I didn't have her in a good environment at first (1 gallon tank, no filter) and that almost killed her. After 10 days, on 7/18/18 I moved her to her current 5 gallon tank and started using the mechanical filter a day or two later. She perked up fairly quickly and I treated the tank for ick once I realized she had it. (I did change out the filter sponges once treatment was completed.) She seems to have done pretty well since then. I test the water about every 2 weeks, and afterwards will clean the tank/change the water (I shoot for 25% but with such a small tank it's often closer to 50%) and add AquaLife Activate (Aquarium Starter/Cleaner that is sold by our locally owned Aquarium store) each time I test and clean the tank. I didn't keep track of the water testing numbers at first, but have been writing them all down since early August.

I am glad you are now monitoring your water conditions and 5 gallon tank is minimum for a Betta. Ammonia and Nitrite levels should always be 0.0ppm. I would recommend you do 50% water changes daily. What you are doing now is a fish-in cycling. So, as long as you keep up with daily water changes of 50% so that after the water change your tank has 0 ammonia and nitrite then you will be fine. Currently your tank is not cycled to handle the nitrogen cycle. At nitrite of 1.0 your Betta's gills are hurting. What are you doing when you clean your tank? AquaLife Activate seems to only add bacteria to the water and it doesn't seem to remove chlorine from their website: AquaLife Activate Freshwater

Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle? Are you adding a water conditioner such as Tetra Safe Start or Seachem Prime to your water before adding it to the tank so that chlorine and chloramine are removed?
Please look through these forum articles and ask away. We are here to help!

Some basics on freshwater fishkeeping:

READ FIRST: Freshwater Beginner Important Topics

here is a series of posts of doing cycling with a fish in
Eeek, cycling with fish! Anything I can do to keep them alive?

Here is a welcome for all Bettae owners:
Welcome to the Betta Section!

and some general facts on Bettae:

Important Betta Topics

pH has consistently been 7.4
8/4 & 8/8: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate 0.0
8/20: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 0.0
9/2: Ammonia 0.5, Nitrite 1.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
9/17: Ammonia 0.0-0.25, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate between 0.0-5.0
Does it look to you like those numbers are changing like you would expect? From my reading it looks like they are changing the way they are supposed to but I expected to see bigger numbers so I'm not sure if it's looking ok or not.

Thanks again for any thoughts or advice!
Danielle

Can we see a picture of your aquarium and Betta? We Looooove pix!

 

Sponges don't need to be replaced unless they are falling apart. They only need to be rinsed in old tank water during maintainence.
Bloodworms are delicious but do not contain enough nutrient to be a staple food. Good quality pellets are better, you can research on how to read the labels to choose a good quality pellets from the shop.
And I agree that nerite snail is good for algae control. Just note that females will lay eggs in the tank when happy, but the eggs will never hatch in freshwater. So you may need to scrape eggs off your tank occasionally.
If your tank doesn't have a lid, you'll need one as some bettas love to jump when they see something interesting. And nerites may get lost and stroll out.

 

Fluval Bug Bites Tropical formula are an excellent food and HikarI Betta Bio-Gold pellets are good too. I give my guy 3 or 4 pieces of one or the other in the morning. And maybe again in the evening. He gets frozen bloodworms once a week. Usually about 3 of them. He also gets crumbled flake food some days instead of the pellets. Variety is good. I have some scuds (small live crustaceans) coming and I hope they work out . I'm gonna try to keep them alive in a storage container as a source of live food.

 

I feed omega one pellets , I soak them first for about 5 Mins so they expand so they don’t swell in there stomachs
I feed 2 in the morning and 2 at night but that is the maximum I would ever feed a betta and all of mine are full grown Bettas.

Don’t throw out the sponges unless falling apart. At that point you would cram new sponge in with the old and have filter running with both for awhile to help move the bacteria’s from the old to the new before removing the old.
When I remove tank water at water changes I siphon it to a ( never used for chemical) designated fish bucket- then if you need to rinse the filter sponge ( once a month- but don’t do it until your tank has fully finished its cycle ) wash them in that water you removed.

 

For the test tubes- I have the apI test master kit and I just place the tubes into the spots that they came in in that while I wait for them to change.
It has about 5 spots I think it is for the test tubes to stand up in

 

Wow everyone - Thank you Thank you! I will do a longer post in response tomorrow but wanted to check in You guys are great!

 

I am getting home later than I'd hoped tonight so can't reply to your comments like I'd hoped but here's a couple pics. She had fin rot (I think?) from the bad conditions she was in at first but we still think she's a Beauty!

 

HE is a beauty you mean

 

HE is a beauty you mean

HaHa! I actually meant to put in my original post that I have no idea if Beauty is a boy or a girl but my 8 year old daughter decided she looked like a girl and wanted to name her Beauty so therefore it's a girl.

So, now that I know she is a he... How do you tell the difference?

 

Males usually have longer ventral , caudal and dorsal fins
Females have shorter fins and males longer fins ( except plakats are the exception )
Males generally have brighter colours too although recently some members I’ve seen here have lovely bright females

Sometimes on females you can see the egg spot too
Males flare too typically , as a warning to other male Bettas- placing a mirror up to the tank for 5 mins you should see him flare
Don’t leave the mirror there though as a mirror long term is stressful
I usually give my boys 5 mins mirror time twice a week

 

Okay, let’s begin.
Use seachem matrix for the biological filter media, very good product and I use it in all my tanks.
You should never need to change the sponges. Once a month swish it around in t am water to get trapped waste out so it doesn’t Leach nitrates into your tnak or clog the sponge.
Two bloodworms should be fine. I would also feed a high quality pelleted diet as bloodworms aren’t a balanced diet . Some I recommend are NLS small fish formula, big bite( forget he brand), cobalt flakes, and last omega one flakes.
With a 5 gallon the only tank mates you can get are a few snails or a few ghost or amano shrimp. A 5 gallon is too small for any other algae eating fish other than nerite snails.
And yes the readings are what is to be expected, the nitrogen cycle seems to be almost done. The reason the levels are so low is because the betta doesn’t produce much of a bioload.

Thank you Jacob! I ordered biological filter media and put it in the filter today.
I'm glad to hear you think the tank is almost done cycling.
I've addressed some of your other suggestions below.

Food- 1-2 Bloodworms is fine. You are also only supposed to feed it once or twice a week as a treat and not a staple diet.

Water testing kit- Many people have built wooden holders for their tubes. Just get a wood block and drill holes about the same size as the tubes. You can get a pack of tube replacement on Amazon or request a replacement from API.

Algae- You can keep a Nerite Snail with her. Research about them.

I didn't realize bloodworms were more of a "treat" - good to know! So I got some NLS pellets, soaked them in water, and gave them to my fish... after trying them and spitting them out twice he swam RIGHT UP to me, clearly looking straight at me, flared, and then just stayed in that spot staring me. Cracked me up! He's very expressive!

Your idea about building a wood block to hold the tubes... I read that and was like "Now why didn't I think of that?"

wash and rinse your sponges in tank water after you done a water change. there is no need to swap them out.

as for food, get a good quality pellet like NLS Betta formula. One pellet in the morning and one in the evening would be fine.

for the algae control, a nerite would be perfect, but don't add one until your tank is fully cycled. they come in nice different colours and are really prolific algae eaters.

I swished the sponges out in water I had just siphoned out - I was surprised that the dark spot in the sponges disappeared with a little swishing.

Welcome to Fishlore Katie Dawn! Answers are between your quote in the next post!

Thanks! Oh yes I'm definitely using water conditioner. I didn't say anything about that originally because I thought the fish would never have survived for 2 months if I hadn't been using it. But maybe not.
I like that tube holder you found. I'm thinking I'm going to have to get that.
See my story earlier in this same post about feeding the fish pellets. Haha!
No, I don't have any live plants. Just two soft silk-ish type plants.

Sponges don't need to be replaced unless they are falling apart. They only need to be rinsed in old tank water during maintainence.
Bloodworms are delicious but do not contain enough nutrient to be a staple food. Good quality pellets are better, you can research on how to read the labels to choose a good quality pellets from the shop.
And I agree that nerite snail is good for algae control. Just note that females will lay eggs in the tank when happy, but the eggs will never hatch in freshwater. So you may need to scrape eggs off your tank occasionally.
If your tank doesn't have a lid, you'll need one as some bettas love to jump when they see something interesting. And nerites may get lost and stroll out.

The tank I have was given to my by a friend. It does have a lid but it's just a single piece of glass that lays over top with a little bit of space all around the edge. Not enough room for a betta to jump out but it could possibly be an issue for a snail.

Fluval Bug Bites Tropical formula are an excellent food and HikarI Betta Bio-Gold pellets are good too. I give my guy 3 or 4 pieces of one or the other in the morning. And maybe again in the evening. He gets frozen bloodworms once a week. Usually about 3 of them. He also gets crumbled flake food some days instead of the pellets. Variety is good. I have some scuds (small live crustaceans) coming and I hope they work out . I'm gonna try to keep them alive in a storage container as a source of live food.

Yes, I can totally see how giving different things is a good idea! My fish was NOT happy with the pellets I offered today, but we'll keep trying!

I feed omega one pellets , I soak them first for about 5 Mins so they expand so they don’t swell in there stomachs
I feed 2 in the morning and 2 at night but that is the maximum I would ever feed a betta and all of mine are full grown Bettas.

Don’t throw out the sponges unless falling apart. At that point you would cram new sponge in with the old and have filter running with both for awhile to help move the bacteria’s from the old to the new before removing the old.
When I remove tank water at water changes I siphon it to a ( never used for chemical) designated fish bucket- then if you need to rinse the filter sponge ( once a month- but don’t do it until your tank has fully finished its cycle ) wash them in that water you removed.

So when we first bought the fish we had pellets, then flakes, but I'm pretty sure he got constipated so I stopped feeding him, and after fasting him for a few days started bloodworms. Soaking them in water makes a lot of sense. I will be doing that!

For the test tubes- I have the apI test master kit and I just place the tubes into the spots that they came in in that while I wait for them to change.
It has about 5 spots I think it is for the test tubes to stand up in

Hahaha! You underestimate how clumsy I am. I knocked one over when it was sitting empty on the counter while I got water out of the tank. The second time I think I was in the middle of putting the drops in and hit it and knocked it over! Yes, I'm that good.

Males usually have longer ventral , caudal and dorsal fins
Females have shorter fins and males longer fins ( except plakats are the exception )
Males generally have brighter colours too although recently some members I’ve seen here have lovely bright females

Sometimes on females you can see the egg spot too
Males flare too typically , as a warning to other male Bettas- placing a mirror up to the tank for 5 mins you should see him flare
Don’t leave the mirror there though as a mirror long term is stressful
I usually give my boys 5 mins mirror time twice a week

I've done a mirror maybe 4 times in the these 2 months, and probably for less than a minute, so sounds like I'm doing good! I can definitely see how it would be stressful if left there.

Thanks again everyone!

 

I got the scuds and my Betta is stupid lol. I put a few in with him and he swam up to them but when they moved, he swam away. I think he's too used to eating things that stay put.