So, you just got back from the carnival and your kid/significant other/irresponsible younger sibling won a betta fish and now you “won” the responsibility of actually taking care of it and you have no idea what to do.
This is actually quite common, and in this guide to Betta Fish Care, we will be covering everything you need to know about handling a Betta fish. The most important thing you will encounter when dealing with your Betta fish is actually handling the water for its tank.
If you just put your betta fish in a tank full of tap water, it will likely die. All those chemicals used to get the bacteria out of your drinking water just aren’t safe for a betta fish to breathe and live in (sort of makes you wonder, no?). You have to have some careful preperations in order to completely handle the care of a delicate fish like a Betta.
The first thing you will want to do is put the betta fish in a bowl in the water it came in. Betta’s do not need much water to breathe, but you at least need to take them out of the bag so that the water can get exposed to oxygen so they have something to breathe.
Next, set out your tap water so that you have enough to fill up a bowl with. Put this in a seperate container and let it sit for 24 hours. If you don’t have much time or the betta did not come with much in the way of water, fill up a huge pot with water and boil it for 30 minutes. This will get most of the chlorine and chemicals out quickly, as Chlorine evaporates fast.
Once that is done, you can transfer your betta fish into that water. Make sure the water of course is an appropriate temperature. Different betta species have different requirements, but for the most part you should be fine with room temperature water unless you are in a very cold place such as an office building. Bettas typically need to be kept in water that is around 72-78 degrees, so if your office building is 60 degrees, that is not going to work.
Once you have the water situation handled, just change the water in this manner once a week. No need to change any more often than that as doing so can stress out the betta fish since they don’t like to be bothered much.
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