What to feed your betta

At the time you may be feeding your fish flake food or pellets. These are fine, but without any variation, your betta will almost inevitably suffer malnutrition. Pellets also are known to cause constipation in older or sickly bettas. Here I'll tell you what I feed mine, but I'm a bit obsessed with my bettas, and give them a wide variety, the size of which is very healthy, but not needed to keep the betta alive.

I've trained my fish to eat the kind of pellet food that floats as a main diet. (I use the floating kind because it's easier for them; they're adapted for it. *Notice the mouth is at the top of the head, not halfway down.* The pellets are a brand called Hikari Bettagold. I also feed them freeze dried bloodworms. (They smell like rice krispies. Yum yum!)

Bettas are carnivores, so I also feed them live food. We have a lagoon in the backyard with titchy little minnows,(see photo above.) I catch them, then put them live into my fish's tank. Napoleon gobbles them up whole, but I cut up the fish for the others. (I behead them first, it's a humane form of euthanization.) I don't feel that sorry for them, they're really small and dumb, not at all like bettas. All I do is put a Ziploc baggie in the water, and the fish swarm in. You wouldn't see a betta doing that, or most other fish in the wild for that matter. Plus they look kind of clueless just swimming in place and *gaping like a guppy*. Sorry if you think I'm heartless. ;)

Bubble nests: What are they?

You may have seen your betta, (if you have one), swimming in his tank with a large mass of bubbles overhead, and thought, "What in heaven's name is that gunk?" I know I did. When I first saw it, I immediately whisked away the tank and cleaned it thoroughly. Later I found out, however that these bubbles are not the product of harmful water conditions, etc., but rather the sign of a happy, healthy betta. Male bettas make these bubble nests to keep the little baby bettas in when they're fry. Males make these by breathing air in, then exhaling with saliva. Like when you make spitbubbles! Except these are more durable. I've heard that it's fine if your betta doesn't make these, but I recently read that no bubble nests may be a sign of bad water conditions. Either way, it's good if your betta makes these.
Bettas also will make these when spawning. Say, when you put a female in front of a male in his tank, but out of his reach. I have yet to see my male doing this.

P.s. My female Ollie sometimes has suspicious little bubbles lacing the surface of her tank. ???

P.p.s. Click the bubble nest photo to enlarge.

New fishie

I'm getting a new betta! If all goes well and he gets here safely, that is. Isn't he a beauty? He's a halfmoon plakat. I'm thinking of naming him Irwin, but I'm not sure.