Nearly everyone who owns an aquarium knows about the Betta fish. It is one of the most beautiful freshwater fish out there. The Bettas originated in the Far East, and the males are known to be aggressive, territorial, and grumpy. But when kept in captivity and isolation, they are among the calmest and friendliest pets out there.
It is probably the first fish you’ll keep in your aquarium because of the notion that it is low maintenance. Unfortunately, the Betta’s lifespan cuts down from 5 years to merely a year because of this wrong fact. In this article, we’ll be discussing some of the most common reasons a Betta dies young. After going through the full article, you will be able to let your pet Betta live a happy life and grow merrily old!
Top 4 reasons your Betta is dying young
The majestic Betta needs a clean palace!
Your Betta’s palace is the aquarium, and its water needs to be clean. This fact applies to any fish that lives in an aquarium. There are two main characteristics of unhealthy aquarium water. The first one is low oxygen and the second one being high pollution.
If you keep the Betta in a small bowl, there is less water surrounding him, which means less oxygen. Furthermore, the fish will excrete, causing a chemical imbalance within the water and making it dirty. Therefore the water might look clean while, in reality, the fish is living in poison.
Some ways you can prevent the water from becoming dirty are:
- Using an aquarium with at least 5-gallon capacity.
- Partially changing the water.
- Vacuum out dirt from the bottom of the aquarium.
- Use a high-quality filter.
A Betta is small, and so is its diet!
The Betta fish needs a well balanced and healthy food to flourish. Michele Taylor, educator of Aquariumfish City shares her list here. Not only the quality of food but the quality of food matters as well. Just think about it; if you eat a lot of pizza daily, you’re bound to fall sick.
You need to feed it high-quality small grain food in such a way that nothing is wasted. Wasted food goes stale and releases harmful substances into the water.
A simple way of solving this problem is to give little amounts of food after short intervals. Furthermore, let them fast for one day each week keeps their guts healthy as well.
The Betta looks cool but stays hot!
The blue Betta fish looks icy and cool, but it cannot live in cold waters. The optimum temperatures for a Betta fish to live correctly is between 65 to 80 degrees. If you live in an area where the climate is hot, you might think that the water will be just fine. But that’s not true because the temperatures fall at night, causing the water to become cold.
It would be best if you used a temperature regulator to keep the water warm. Furthermore, when you opt for a bigger aquarium, the higher volume of water takes a long time to cool down. This makes way for natural temperature regulation as well.
The stress is real!
At times we forget that even though the Betta is a small creature, it has emotions; they can get stressed. For a fish like Betta, mental stress can quickly take a physical toll and cause loads of problems. There are a lot of triggers that might cause your pet Betta to become stressed.
One of the primary reasons is its reflection! It might sound illogical, but a fish cannot understand reflections; the Betta sees it as another fish. This urges him to fight it, and that intern increases its stress. Other reasons like powerful currents from the filters, taps on the aquarium, and more contribute to stress.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that Betta fish are one of the hardiest among most of the aquarium fish. But that doesn’t mean you need to push them to its limits. The fish can keep up with difficult times for small periods. The lack of comfort and an unhealthy environment will shorten the fish’s lifespan by a lot. Keeping the fish stress free, giving it healthy food and providing it with a big and clean aquarium will allow it to enjoy its long life with you.
