Marine Betta
- Thread starter Capt56
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GigaFish
New member
My betta is one of my favorite fishes. They just float and flap their fins like a butterfly. Mine has unlimited lives. He had a rock fall on him once burrying him in the sand for over an hour before I realized he was under it. He lost all his scales on one side and regrew everything perfectly within a month. Later he got some sort of backterial infection where he was upside down and breathing heavy and I thought for sure he was gone, but he pulled through. Now he is just trying to survive my new porc puffer which is biting all of his fins off.
Anyways, THEIR AWESOME!!!
Anyways, THEIR AWESOME!!!
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Dude, if you wanna get a marine betta do it. They're great fish for the reef and FOWLR aquarium. I've gone one, it's a bit small at around 4 inches or so but he's amazing. Hasn't even payed attention to my cleaner shrimp as they share a cave together. Mine is a bit bold and if my angelfish start giving him a hard time he chases them around. Great hardy fish, with a great appetite for mysis.
These things sound great! (I always just assumed my smaller inverts would be lunch if I kept one.) What is a good diet for them? Right now I rotate frozen cyclopeeze, frozen mysis, frozen formula 1 and 2, frozen Rod's Food, frozen mussels, some herbovore pellets and some standard issue marine flake.
Also, current tank inhabitants are a foxface, pink skunk clown pair, 5 blue-green chromis, a potter's angel, a copperband butterfly, a baby desjardini sailfin tang, and a fridmani pseudochromis. Corals are almost all softies (plus two elegance corals, which are LPS). Any issues there?
Also, current tank inhabitants are a foxface, pink skunk clown pair, 5 blue-green chromis, a potter's angel, a copperband butterfly, a baby desjardini sailfin tang, and a fridmani pseudochromis. Corals are almost all softies (plus two elegance corals, which are LPS). Any issues there?
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Dude.. give it a little time and it'll adapt to most anything. Start it out with frozen mysis and let it get comfortable. From then on out it's just gonna chow on food.
Don't worry about issues with that livestock... just make sure this guy has plenty of rock to hide in and you'll be fine.
Don't worry about issues with that livestock... just make sure this guy has plenty of rock to hide in and you'll be fine.
redhdmedic
New member
your stock is good, just keep in mind the size of that djardini...they get huge and fast...ours went from 1.5" to 5" in the last 6 months...and he's fat...and nowhere near done growing
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Yeah, I agree with redhdmedic, that desjardini tang is gonna get big fast... it won't cause any problems with the betta but it'll definitely outgrow the tank.
If I could do it over again I would not have got the desjardini for that very reason. I'm usually pretty meticulous about tank additions, but somehow it escaped my notice that the desjardini is among the bigger tangs. Mine is about 2 inches right now, so I should have at least some time to try to find him a better home. (Or use him as an excuse to get a ridiculous 8 foot 300 gallon or something).
Back to the betta - online stores all seem to say they aren't reef compatible, not in terms of corals, but in terms of small crustaceans, which they will supposedly consume. Are these sources just flat out wrong? I like the looks of this fish, but I don't want to risk losing my whole clean-up crew to it, either.
Back to the betta - online stores all seem to say they aren't reef compatible, not in terms of corals, but in terms of small crustaceans, which they will supposedly consume. Are these sources just flat out wrong? I like the looks of this fish, but I don't want to risk losing my whole clean-up crew to it, either.
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Well, I have one and it doesn't even pay attention to my crabs and snails and shrimps. It could easily eat my peppermints but prefers to just shy away from them. I've never seen one go after anything besides white shrimp and maybe mysis. My lfs has a good 10 incher that's scared to death of his neon gobies, so from what I've seen these guys are great reef additions. It also doesn't bother his CUC.
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Well, marine bettas won't go after corals or clams and yes, you can keep one with a dwarf lion and whatnot.
They're pretty harmless and rather shy so they won't really bother other fish.
Hmm... a 40 gallon.. you might be able to keep a small marine betta but once it gets big you're gonna wanna get something around 75+ gallons just to have enough LR to provide shelter for this guy.
Your only worries would be like tiny shrimp and whatnot... it might eat those when it's big.
They're pretty harmless and rather shy so they won't really bother other fish.
Hmm... a 40 gallon.. you might be able to keep a small marine betta but once it gets big you're gonna wanna get something around 75+ gallons just to have enough LR to provide shelter for this guy.
Your only worries would be like tiny shrimp and whatnot... it might eat those when it's big.
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Sure thing.
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Yeah, amazing fish with BEAUTIFUL colors. Mine has a very dark black spotted body with a very defined jade outline on all its fins... they have a nice transition from that jade as well. Amazing fish, but it only likes me. It'll come out and even eat from my hand from time to time. It seems to enjoy my company even when it's not hungry though, but everyone else scares the crap out of it.
redhdmedic
New member
I really wanted to add a betta to my 75, but it is just aggressive in there! I'm thinking I'll have to pull a number like mrwilson said...of course we already have an 8 footer...i would ove to upgrade my 75 to a 150...then expand my reef into the 75, where a betta would live happily!
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Really? I've never seen a marine betta act aggressive in a tank that size. Was there enough LR for it to hide in? Maybe it's just a rare exception to the rule that these creatures are pretty peaceful because even mine just chases my angels off when they bother it.
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