Marine Bettas: Show Me Yours!

[Zionas]

That’s great. By the time I start adding Tangs, which will be a Yellow and a Yellow Eye Kole, the Betta will have been in the tank for several months if not nearing a year. My planned Foxface and Bannerfish will also have been in the tank for a while so the Betta will be used to their presence. Pretty peaceful fish though, the Foxface and Heniochus so I don’t see too much of a problem. Hopefully not. Ideally my Comet will be the first large fish I add.

 

[Hugh Mann]

They’re pretty slow growers it seems. Having such a magnificent fish like the Marine Betta will provide enjoyment not measured in years or even a decade, but decades. That’s another thing which makes me love them so much.

I’m looking forward to mine, and hopefully it will be about 3-4 inches when I get it.

How do these fish fare in tanks with more active swimmers that snatch food quickly? I’m asking because I’ll be keeping mine eventually with a Yellow Tang, Kole Tang, One Spot FF, and Longfin Heniochus, all active swimmers. If you count smaller fish, then my planned Flame Angel and a Wrasse will also be active swimmers.

Can't speak for other bettas, but mine does just fine. Snaps up mysis, brine and the odd bit of flake as it drifts by. Prefers to take chunkier foods, krill, bits of scallop and shrimp. Those it will actively hunt down if it sees them.

 

[Hugh Mann]

They’re pretty slow growers it seems. Having such a magnificent fish like the Marine Betta will provide enjoyment not measured in years or even a decade, but decades. That’s another thing which makes me love them so much.

I’m looking forward to mine, and hopefully it will be about 3-4 inches when I get it.

How do these fish fare in tanks with more active swimmers that snatch food quickly? I’m asking because I’ll be keeping mine eventually with a Yellow Tang, Kole Tang, One Spot FF, and Longfin Heniochus, all active swimmers. If you count smaller fish, then my planned Flame Angel and a Wrasse will also be active swimmers.

Can't speak for other bettas, but mine does just fine. Snaps up mysis, brine and the odd bit of flake as it drifts by. Prefers to take chunkier foods, krill, bits of scallop and shrimp. Those it will actively hunt down if it sees them.

Some feeding videos (excuse the reflections and general poor quality)

Marine Betta pair/harem #1
The large female got the hang of it and now takes the krill straight from the tweezers but the male is still a little picky and so far prefers flakes and Mysis. He is getting better with krill - just not this time...




And the male of pair #2
He definitely got the hang of it!

Awesome video. I only wish mine ate like that. Tends to be more like the male in video 1.

How often to you feed yours?
I was feeding, or trying to feed mine daily, but that is because I fed the entire tank daily, but now that it's by itself, I can do a more specific feeding schedule.

 

[Zionas]

That’s cool. How well does it consume flake and pellet foods overall, or does it only eat frozen most of the time?

 

[Hugh Mann]

Haven't tried pellets, but I have only seen it maybe 5 pieces of flake total, and it had to drift right past its nose.
Definitely prefers frozen over anything else.

Couple of pics I snapped prior to leaving for work. (I really have to adjust my lighting schedule)

 

[Waters]

I actually did end up ordering one. Doing ok so far.....nobody messes with him/her and he/she doesn't mess with anybody. Stays in the rock work as expected....has shown 0 interest in feeding yet though. It has been about 5 days.

 

[Zionas]

Hope yours will feed soon!


When I get mine I’ll have to make sure it takes Frozen, Flakes, and pellets. If for some reason I have no access to frozen for a while (Frozen Foods, quality ones are very hard to come by in China, have to order online through importers for quality brands like First Bite, Hikari etc.) they’ll have to eat something. So, flakes and pellets.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I actually did end up ordering one. Doing ok so far.....nobody messes with him/her and he/she doesn't mess with anybody. Stays in the rock work as expected....has shown 0 interest in feeding yet though. It has been about 5 days.

Mine took a month to eat food I have it. If you have an ample supply of pods or other such edibles in your tank, your betta will likely be fine. They come around.

 

[Waters]

Mine took a month to eat food I have it. If you have an ample supply of pods or other such edibles in your tank, your betta will likely be fine. They come around.

Unfortunately I don't......it is a relatively new tank (5 months) started with dry rock. I will give him some time before I start to worry too much I guess

 

[Zionas]

Do they need established tanks or will new tanks be okay for them?

Maybe I’ll have a couple fish added before them to “teach” them to accept aquarium fare, but not sure which fish would be good for the task.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Hope yours will feed soon!


When I get mine I’ll have to make sure it takes Frozen, Flakes, and pellets. If for some reason I have no access to frozen for a while (Frozen Foods, quality ones are very hard to come by in China, have to order online through importers for quality brands like First Bite, Hikari etc.) they’ll have to eat something. So, flakes and pellets.

Do you have access to frozen seafood at grocery stores? I buy my shrimp, scallops and squid at the store. I have run it through a food processor before to chop it fine enough for smaller fish to eat. Mysis, brine and krill from fish stores.

 

[Zionas]

Yes though the seafood market is far away from me. It’ll be a bit of a challenge. Getting frozen brine shrimp will be okay for me through importers, frozen mysis and krill a bit harder.

I can order various frozen foods from brands like Hikari and First Bite online. Ocean Nutrition Formula-1 flakes and pellets as well as their Prime Reef Flakes will also be available to me.

 

[ThRoewer]

Can't speak for other bettas, but mine does just fine. Snaps up mysis, brine and the odd bit of flake as it drifts by. Prefers to take chunkier foods, krill, bits of scallop and shrimp. Those it will actively hunt down if it sees them.

Awesome video. I only wish mine ate like that. Tends to be more like the male in video 1.

How often to you feed yours?
I was feeding, or trying to feed mine daily, but that is because I fed the entire tank daily, but now that it's by itself, I can do a more specific feeding schedule.

I try to feed the ones I want to spawn once or twice a day. Otherwise, they can live just fine of what the other fish miss. I see the ones in the reef tank even pick pods.

One thing I have noticed is that their eyes have problems with reflections. Often they go first after the reflection in the glass before they realize that the food is actually behind them. You can see this in my first feeding video where the female at first has trouble finding the actual shrimp and first chases the reflection.

 

[ThRoewer]

@ThRoewer you mention two males will fight but do you have experience with only females? Is there aggression there at all?

There might be a little chasing from time to time and occasionally a torn tailfin but otherwise two females should get along fine. If there is no male in the tank the larger female will establish dominance over the smaller and turn into a male.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Mine does seem to have a hard time seeing food sometimes, and I've definitely seen it try to fight its own reflection when I cleaned the tank.

These fish definitely seem to have pretty interesting personalities. You have a harem of them, two females and a male, I suppose that is just the same thing as adding a single female?

And you've mentioned torn tail fins, have you ever had to specially treat or medicate them after that, or will it typically heal just fine on their own?

 

[ThRoewer]

Mine does seem to have a hard time seeing food sometimes, and I've definitely seen it try to fight its own reflection when I cleaned the tank.

These fish definitely seem to have pretty interesting personalities. You have a harem of them, two females and a male, I suppose that is just the same thing as adding a single female?

And you've mentioned torn tail fins, have you ever had to specially treat or medicate them after that, or will it typically heal just fine on their own?

The fin damage is in most cases just the skin between the fin rays that tears and it usually heals within a day.

They are definitely fish with character and once they get to know you and learn that you are no threat to them they might even come to the front and beg for food. That's what the larger female of my harem group does - and she is by far the newest of all my Marine Bettas. I have her less than a year, all the others for 4 or more. And she is the most wild as I got her at that size while I got all the others much smaller than they are now.

 

[ThRoewer]

Marine Betta & bite-sized baby bicinctus:



This female Marine Betta can gulp down a shrimp at least 5 times the size of this tiny Anemonefish, yet she doesn't even give it a second look.
So much for the false myth that Marine Bettas eat small fish...

 

[mort]

Marine Betta & bite-sized baby bicinctus

This female Marine Betta can gulp down a shrimp at least 5 times the size of this tiny Anemonefish, yet she doesn't even give it a second look.
So much for the false myth that Marine Bettas eat small fish...

Had the exact same scenario. Whilst I was building my old tank I had to keep the betta in a tank that had a above tank refugium with 4 baby clowns left over from a spawn, that I thought had potential. Long story short they kept finding a way into the main tank and I had to fish them out. Even found a couple hiding under the betta one day.

There might be a little chasing from time to time and occasionally a torn tailfin but otherwise two females should get along fine. If there is no male in the tank the larger female will establish dominance over the smaller and turn into a male.

Thanks that what I was assuming but good to have it confirmed.

You obviously like harems, is this because bettas are so appealing that the more the merrier? Or do you think a trio is a better scenario than a pair for breeding potential and overall harmony?

 

[ThRoewer]

Had the exact same scenario. Whilst I was building my old tank I had to keep the betta in a tank that had a above tank refugium with 4 baby clowns left over from a spawn, that I thought had potential. Long story short they kept finding a way into the main tank and I had to fish them out. Even found a couple hiding under the betta one day.



Thanks that what I was assuming but good to have it confirmed.

You obviously like harems, is this because bettas are so appealing that the more the merrier? Or do you think a trio is a better scenario than a pair for breeding potential and overall harmony?

I actually prefer pairs but the small female of my first pair would just not get ready to spawn and I had that large female sitting alone in the tank with my Amphiprion milii. So I decided to speed things up and it worked.
Also, with a harem you are almost guaranteed to always see one of the bunch. Even keeping them as pairs will increase the time they are out and about.

 

[Hugh Mann]

That is good, these fish are too beautiful to not be able to see.
With my Betta being the lone survivor in my tank, 8/10 times I look at it, it looks devoid of life, 1/10 I see his head poking out, and the other 1/10 he's demanding I feed him.