I don't think the normal carbon filter will reduce sufficient mineral in tap water to cause any deficiancy to fishes...the type of filter you need to pay close attention is the RO filter as i've read discus keeper need to supplement some external mineral/vitamins into RO water to prevent such problem...don't know if the same applies to betta though

This post has been edited by evildonkey: Oct 26 2006, 09:54 PM

all sifuu, i did read the article about the RO too, so i am not using that water and i am using ketabang too, since my house hv 3 trees here free supply, btw i feed my bettas with live worms, the small small red one, dont kno wat they call, normally i just called them "cacing" later thinking of deco my bettas tank, all sifuu any suggestion? forgot to mention, i am using 2" tank for my bettas, hmmm wondering call mix some of them 2gether ahh? my house oout of space aldi if i provide enug wood/pvc/plants/stone for them to hide, so is it possible tat i just mix some of them 2gether? i mean the same species one la

well u cant mix males together in the same tank for sure. They will fight. Use a partition instead...maybe like partition your tank into 4 parts if u have 4 bettas for example.

well. u can use the wats the name.....forgot oleady. soli. but those plastics for seperating flower horns. ohh,... i tink call divider.. or use small smal glass bottle. the small small red one i guess is blood worms.

Is there any of you got experience with small hole in the betta tail, not fin rot? What are the causes of hole? Can they be growing back?

I found out a small hole at the tail of my HM but he is completely normal and active. Immediately, I changed the water. Am I doing the right thing? Hope all sifus can help.

Hey, i am a newb to betta.... My gf just bought me 1 tat day... can i ask how often shud i feed and change the water?

and can i ask oso why do we need to put leaves for the betta fish? for wat?
If we do have to put... wat kind of leaves and how many of em?

Thanx in advance

Oh ya... will Betta change it s colour or grow bigger (tail longer? or fatter?) if u rear it for a long perioud of time? thanx

That happens when the water quality is poor...it'll heal over time...you could either put in some ketapang leaf or some melafix(or izzit methalyne blue?). Ketapang leaf have some healing capabilities while melafix usually aids in faster healing for torn fin or external injuries.

It really depends on the genes of the betta...if it contains marble genes then don't be surprised if the colour of the fish changes totally into another colour pattern...if it's a young fish it could probably have the long tail genes and their fins will definately grow...generally you should expect red washes as the fish ages and its size should grow bigger provided they are housed in a large enough container or tank. Red wash are little red patches on the fish with no particular pattern while the size of an old betta could reach up to 3.5 inches if they are properly kept

This post has been edited by evildonkey: Oct 27 2006, 11:42 PM

OH i c thanx... so wat are the leaves for?

The leaves is called ketapang leaves .. it has natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal healing power ... how much of leaves to put in depends on the size of your container ... well just agak agak loh ...

erm where do i get them o?

all sifuu, mayb i can just put 1 or 2 tanks in my room, i just dont wan to keep them in the bottle bcos i think tats too small for them ma, so pity headache lo since my house so small onli btw thnx to all sifuu

i change once a week 50% only. take water from my planted aquarium. my planted aquarium on the other hand, i use aged, dechlorinated,salted water (have one big tong). BTW, my betta is in a small fish bowl only. but i put in gravel (for bacteria culture) and java moss (to help reduce the ammonia in the water)

filtered water of course safe for fish. dont know about minerals though

any picture of the ketapang tree/leaves. thinking of looking for one since my house is at kampung one. BTW i know lfs use them too, but do they sell it? better can they give out for free? heheh

Dried ones look like these:




You won't miss it. The tree is very very big and the leaves are wide in the middle.

sifuu, i think u can use the ph down also, bcos i am using the ketapang leafs, but the water bcome "brown" very hard to c fish one, and its particularly usefull for bettas for new fish i wil use the ketapang leaf water, but after tat i wil change the water b using the ph down lo, bcos i wan to c my fish ma, hahahaha, just sharing opinion, peace

i've had my betta for nearly a year now without using any ketapang leaves/ph down, black water thingy etc. i was just thinking maybe if there are any ketapang trees around my area, i can test to see if my betta likes them in the water. in other words, i dont want to spend money one hehe

sifuu, i think the bettas lov ktp, u can c the improvement in my place here ktp is very common btw wat betta u keep? diff betta need diff ph if u wan them to breed right? correct me if wrong, all sifuu. i use the ktp n i notice the ph only down to 5.9-6.1, but some bettas need lower ph, so no choice hv to go for ph down or peat, bcos ktp cant pull the ph tat low all sifuu any idea to share on how to lower down the ph to around 4? if hv free source like ketapang leaf then it will be the best can save money

i just have the normal long-finned variety. rm1.50 bought at jalan pasar. not thinking of breeding them. already too much time spent on my turtles and planted aquarium

Wah, yesterday I went to my uncle's house.... 1st time I see Purple Salamander man... so niceeee..... then he got a pure black and something like a metalic blue over black... wonder what is that hahahah....

sifuu, hv pic to share?
sifuu sayasebuk: haha the rm1.50 then no need to breed la, aslongas the ph around 6-7 they r ok one, use aged tab water ok liao for them, but if u use ktp, it wil keep their color nicer, but over use it la, bcos the ketapang wil make ur fish very "excite" one, too "high" not good for ur fish lo, just my opinion, correct me if i am wrong sifuu. about plant tank, wat plant u keep?? post some pic here la, cant wait to c