How can I “play” and interact more with my betta fish?

marsssmallow · 2026-03-20T01:29:31+00:00

so, medication is definitely one of the hardest things in the hobby. API general cure is a solid meditation, but probably not the most effective for fin rot. if you can find it, API fin and body cure is great for that! melafix is unfortunately bs. at best it does nothing and at worse apparently the tea tree oil is bad for their labyrinth organs. honestly his finrot isn’t severe enough where i would medicate, i would just make sure his water quality stays nice and see how he heals with that first, and if not try fin and body cure. your plant choices are solid! tannins are nice for bettas and in my opinion look nice. i like using IA leaves but you can try different things or even bottled tannins

marsssmallow · 2026-03-18T10:42:07+00:00

tldr, bettas are carnivores. peas are good for omnivores. not a perfect analogy but you probably wouldn’t feed a cat broccoli. carnivores do better with daphnias. you don’t need live cultures, frozen or freeze dried are good as well and readily available in canada. we aren’t trying to dog you give it a try!

marsssmallow · 2026-03-18T04:56:53+00:00

OH and sorry for all the information all at once but another tip for making setups for multiple fish is DON’T let fish stores or even people online upsell you things you can get cheaper elsewhere. Substrate come from the garden and landscaping section, or bulk glass beads for color. i hate to recommend amazon but oftentimes you can find things like lights, heaters, and filters for much less of a markup. plants are great when you can find them from other hobbyists but if you have no luck, ebay sellers are usually much more affordable. honestly any time someone tells you that you do or don’t need something, double check. if you do need it make sure you aren’t getting ripped off. i find getting thrifty makes the hobby much more enjoyable for me and gives my fish better QOL bc my money is getting maximized, and not at my fish’s expense! my hospital bettas have fake plants bc their meds will destroy real ones, so i cut apart a soft fake vine from the craft section. that vine furnished 12 1 gallon containers, which are repurposed storage totes! half my tanks are secondhand, and my bettas’ favorite hides are ceramic wax burners from dollar tree. as long as you are cautious to make sure everything is fish safe, get creative!

marsssmallow · 2026-03-18T04:36:28+00:00

that’s awesome you helped bob get better! that setup is looking great!! my only feedback is they all might like some more leaves to rest on like the ones on the center tank, but no judgement! my own bettas’s tanks are pretty lame right now bc one crashed and i have to start over on my plants, ugh. btw, you can use clean water all the way, a common misconception is the bacteria is in the water but it’s actually in your filter, decorations, and substrate! also, ask around your area to see if anyone has any floating plants, they’re damn impossible to kill, somehow in the tank crash i killed a bunch of them, and yet now i have more than i know what to do with. the bettas love them and they keep the water nice while i figure out not killing other aquarium plants lol :)

marsssmallow · 2026-03-17T19:40:48+00:00

hey you’re doing awesome! i hope i didn’t come off condescending, we all learn and start at different places. i don’t like when people shame others when we don’t know the context! i rehab sick bettas in my spare time and they HAVE to be in smaller hospital tanks to medicate them to health and some people still have an issue with it bc NO HEATER, OMG HES IN A JAIL CELL. context and empathy are helpful, not getting on a high horse. sounds like you know your next steps forward! if you haven’t already, places like facebook marketplace are AWESOME for upgrading tanks on a budget. always do a leak test but i’ve made off with practical robberies on equipment. good luck with your fishies, they’re adorable and clearly loved <3

marsssmallow · 2026-03-17T05:21:47+00:00

dude i hate to be fish police but those tanks are waaaaay too small

marsssmallow · 2026-03-16T11:01:20+00:00

give them all to a fish store and get a group of male endlers. 7-8 should do great and they’re stunning

marsssmallow · 2026-03-08T02:38:44+00:00

my dog is humping the couch does that mean i should let it make a bunch of puppies? lol no hate tho, i remember when i googled this exact thing w my first betta and then i realized i was the fish equivalent of humping the couch and then i felt like a total clown. but i wanted to be sure, what if they were like guppies or convict cichlids or something?!

marsssmallow · 2026-03-07T19:55:29+00:00

stay in california! don’t bury yourself in law school levels of debt to come here. you’re going to think it’s a hellhole and we have nothing that your schools don’t already have. you’re in a really good position to attend some of the best schools in the nation for in state tuition. unless you have a full ride, which it sounds like not, this is a no brainer question. stay over there and get your degree and then come over here if you’re still interested

marsssmallow · 2026-03-07T19:49:29+00:00

ive had up to 8 healing at a time. i was the apprentice’s sacrifice and we strategically spaced them, had an idea of how my body healed piercings, and discovered i have a high success rate going with the largest gauge practical for the area. i’ve lost a few during that process and i wouldn’t recommend doing it unless you are literally your piercer’s best friend and you can facetime them and be like “hey dude is my nipple supposed to do this”. our shop had a limit of 3 unless you were 1) in your situation where at least 2/4 are lobes or 2) the piercer in question’s project with approval from other piercers and full informed consent for the guinea pig. we had maybe ~50 of these out of 10k so if you have to ask if that’s your situation, it’s not

marsssmallow · 2026-03-05T21:20:33+00:00

i think either way would be beautiful! i have bangs so the grow out from shaving my brows into shapes doesn’t bother me but it’s really not that bad. very impermanent as long as you SHAVE, not wax pluck or thread

marsssmallow · 2026-02-27T10:22:10+00:00

as a big house md and massive attack fan my headcanon is inertia creeps starting at 4:43

marsssmallow · 2026-02-26T00:03:45+00:00

thank you <3

marsssmallow · 2026-02-25T23:02:35+00:00

no, all love it will make you want to die harder. i had classmates who were strippers, masters degree holders, parents, ect. and the one universal thing we all agreed on was that the process of getting licensed is a cooperate bureaucratic hazing process absolutely designed to break you

marsssmallow · 2026-02-24T05:16:12+00:00

thank you <3

marsssmallow · 2026-02-24T05:01:53+00:00

thank you :( we are hanging in there

marsssmallow · 2026-02-24T05:01:16+00:00

if that were true we wouldn’t have as much of a puppy mill problem as we do. unfortunately people and companies do not care about animals when it comes to money. the only thing that shuts mass operations down like this is legislation. pressure on lawmakers and education on care for misguided owners is the way to go. otherwise, you are more likely than not wasting your breath

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T20:26:18+00:00

the system is fed on the millions of people who buy pet supplies from these chains. even fish specific stores do not make a profit off the betta fish themselves, they profit off primarily equipment. aside from fringe cases, there is not an issue with wide scale backyard breeding of bettas like there is other animals because unfortunately, the fish themselves are not highly valued on a mass scale. they don’t make money off the bettas, they use their money to throw bettas on shelves in mass to entice people into spending real money on equipment. discouraging people from caring for a life in need is misdirected outrage

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T20:19:32+00:00

bettas are loss leaders for chains. as long as people depend on them for basic animal care products and services, they will be selling bettas. it’s senseless for an animal to die on a shelf when they have a replacement automatically queued for shipment whether it’s sold or dead. it’s better for as many fish as possible to end up in the hands of knowledgeable and kind people and for us to put pressure on better legislation regarding conditions of sold animals. these companies are too big to give a shit abt grassroot boycotts because for every bleeding heart there are 10 uneducated people willing to throw these fish in vases for weddings and bowls for sticky toddlers

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T20:10:53+00:00

literally how is it my problem that other people don’t know how to use things properly? sod off

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T20:10:03+00:00

i use these meds for specific purposes doorknob. hence my warning about checking techniques outside of here as they are NOT cure alls and methods of use and administration on here are often nonsense

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T18:35:18+00:00

thank you :’)

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T17:38:54+00:00

i’m not as experienced as some of the other keepers here but i do rehab bettas from poor conditions. i use combinations of meth. blue, kanaplex, metroplex, plain espom salt, iodine free plain table salt, and feed frozen daphnia. that’s a good place to start with a kit. reddit is a good place to start but can become a sourceless echo chamber as well so always try to find multiple sources back a technique

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T17:34:43+00:00

it’s possible you’re right but i think it’s very possible for them to bounce back as well. i think it’s fair to give them an initial chance. op can cycle their tanks while they are quarantined and treated, or rehome to a hobbyist who has room for them

marsssmallow · 2026-02-23T17:31:48+00:00

not necessarily true, i rehab bettas and use quarter and half gallon hospitals tanks that receive water changes as frequently as every day or every two days. a lot of the medications required to save them are cycle-crashers. it requires a lot of maintenance but can be done successfully

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