Starting
Setting Up 
Add Fish 
Feeding 
Maintain 

First and Foremost

1) Betta fish are carnivorous. This means they eat meat and not the roots from plants!!! Bettas need to be fed daily, twice a day is good also. A couple of choices are Hikari Betta Bio Gold,  HBH Betta Bites, or various brands of dried bloodworms. Bettas will generally not eat flake food very well.  

2) Fish waste produces Ammonia. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish, therefore regular water changes are necessary. Plant life will not filter this problem entirely. Consistent water changes are the best way to ensure you maintain a healthy environment. When changing the water use either bottled SPRING water (not distilled, it lacks essential elements like the minerals both your fish and any plant life need) or use tap water treated with a dechlorinator like Stress Coat or AquaSafe.

3) Bettas breathe the oxygen from the surface of the water. This can pose a problem if the roots from a plant are left to over take the surface area. It is really better for them to get to the surface to breathe. Bettas do have gills and can breathe from the water; but as they mature, their dependence on the oxygen from the surface increases.  Bettas can actually 'drown' with lack of surface air to breathe.

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Starting your new fish bowl

  Setting Up Your Betta Bowl
Clean the bowl under running water. Do not use any soap or detergents. Cover the bottom of the bowl with the gravel provided. For decoration, add the plastic plant. Just slide the plant base into the gravel. Carefully fill the bowl to a height of about one inch from the top with tap water of approximately room temperature. Since bettas are tropical fish, you should keep you betta bowl in a room where the temperature does not drop much below 70 degrees (F). Before you put the betta into your bowl, you must make sure that the water is safe. Most tap water contains chlorine, which is very poisonous to fish. To remove it, you can simply let the water age for about two days. The chlorine will disappear naturally. Or you can make the water fish-safe immediately by adding chlorine neutralizer included in this kit. Follow the directions on the packaging carefully.

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  Introducing Your Betta to the Bowl
After you have brought your betta home, keep the plastic bag with the fish in the same room with the betta bowl for at least 20 minutes. This will gradually equalize the temperature of the water in the bag and in the bowl. To transfer the fish from the bag to the bowl, use a net if you have one. Otherwise, pour most of the water, very carefully, from the bag into your sink, leaving the fish with very little water in the bag. Then hold the open bag over the bowl and let the fish gently slide into the bowl. Try to transfer as little of the water in the bag as possible to the bowl.

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  Feeding Your Betta Fish
Be very careful when you feed your fish. Do not overfeed. Food that is not quickly eaten by the fish will rot and pollute the water. Polluted water will kill your fish. You can feed your fish as often as three times a day, but very sparingly. Watch your fish closely and remove any food not eaten after a few minutes. You will gain experience, and after a few days you'll know just how much your fish will eat at each feeding. Follow the directions on the packaging carefully.

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  Maintaining Good Water Conditions for Your Fish
To help minimize pollution of the water, you should change some of the water regularly. Every week, remove about half of the water in the bowl and replace it with aged or dechlorinated water of the same temperature. Every four to six weeks, you may have to make a complete water change and clean the bowl. Put your fish in a suitable container with a little of the old water. Clean the bowl, decorations, and gravel under running tap water and wipe the inside of the bowl clean. Refill the bowl with aged water or dechlorinated water and return the fish to the bowl along with the small amount of old water you had kept the betta in while you were cleaning the bowl. In a new set-up betta bowl, the water may become a little cloudy for a few days after the fish has been introduced. This is usually not a serious problem and the water will probably clear again by itself. However, you should be especially careful and feed only a minimum amount of food. If at other times the water becomes cloudy it is a sure sign of water pollution, caused by rotting food (overfeeding). Change water immediately.

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