Beta fish advice!

[Princess Lala]

My bettas all flared up at me whenever I first got them too!!! Once they associate your fingers with food they will stop! xD Oh! Also don't overfeed bettas!!! They will eat till they die LOL!!! About 5 pellets a day was what I did with mine!

[tikibirds]

Bettas are simple to keep compared to a lot of other fish.
This is basically all you need:
1) 2.5-5 gallon tank. It dosen't have to be an actual tank- I have used clear storage bins and even the veggie krisper from my fridge to house bettas in.
2) Heater is a must since they are tropical fish, their temp should be about 78-80F
3) Places to hide
4) Water conditioner to get the nasties out of the tap water. There are many brands out there. Personally, I like API's Stress Coat and Krodon's Amquel. You don't need both but I have a lot of fish and Amquel can also be used to lower ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte in a hurry. If you don't have a filtered tank, then you shouldn't have to worry about anything other then ammonia buildup. If you DO have a filter then please look up the NITROGEN CYCLE for an Aquarium. (your fish will thank you).

Care:
Here is where most people fail with bettas and goldfish. They NEED water changes. The smaller the tank, the more frequent the changes.  However this is also where the nitrogen cycle comes into play. If you have a 5+ gallon tank, you can cycle it with the betta and a filter. The  very basic definition of this is that it will help keep the water cleaner for longer..not physically cleaner but it will help keep those nasty chemicals that can kill fish out of the water. Bacteria will grow and it will eat the ammonia, then another bacteria will appear and that will eat the nitrIte and the end product will be nitrAte. Fish can take a much higher amount of NitrAte then the can of Ammonia and NitrIte. The only way to get rid of the nitrAte is via water changes. Once this cycle is finished, then you only need to remove about 50% of the water weekly to keep it clean.

When doing the water changes - remove the fish and then dump out the old water. Refill it with new water. Add the water conditioner and  SLOWLY acclimate the fish to the new water temp. I catch mine in a plastic cup and then when I add them back, float the cup in the water and slowly add in a little of the clean water so they slowly get used to it. If you have a larger tank, you don't have to remove the fish - just use a siphon to remove the water and clean out the debris from the gravel, sand, floor.

Filters are not mandatory for bettas, but if you have one then the tank is going to do that nitrogen cycle that I mentioned and you need to keep up with 2X weekly water changes for about a month till the cycle finishes (again look up nitrogen cycle for aquariums for the details of what actually happens in the process.) Also, for smaller tanks, most filters are too powerful for bettas, so you need to find a way to adjust the outflow of water from the filter. I have some males that bite their fins when the water level gets too low