My First Week of Keeping a Betta Fish

Although I know nothing about fishkeeping, I want to have a pet fish and start my fishkeeping journey. In this article, I share my first week of keeping a Betta fish.

To be perfectly honest, this is not my first experience with pet fish. Back in my childhood, I had a fish that I won at a carnival; I think it was a goldfish. You know, the ones that come in a sealed plastic bag. Anyway, it did not go well for the goldfish. To cut a long story short, I found it floating dead the next morning. It is fair to say that I’ve had a bad experience with pet fish. But, I decided to give it another shot and ordered a beginner’s kit online. I wanted to share my experience with the internet.

Day 1: Betta fish arrives

The aquarium kit I ordered came with a free Betta fish. The delivery was so quick that it arrived the following evening.

When it arrived that night, I was filled with excitement and apprehension. The fish can be dead on arrival; I just didn’t know at that time.

I went and set up my camera to capture the moment. Then, I unboxed everything. The kit included the following:

1. The tank
2. Hornwort
3. Lava sand
4. Talisay extract
5. A little pouch of rock salt
6. Turkey baster (serves as a poop siphon)
7. Betta fish food
8. Betta fish

The tank’s dimensions are 4 x 6 x 8 inches. Therefore, it is small but more than enough for the betta fish.

For more details, I wrote an unboxing article:

Watch me unbox it!

My First Aquarium Tank Setup

After getting everything out of the box, I immediately set it up. The kit also came with instructions, which is a good thing for first-time owners like me. I read and followed every instruction.

Instructions

1. Clean the tank, sand, and plants.
2. Use stock water or mineral water (if stock water is not available).
3. Set up the sand and plants.
4. Slowly add water. The water level should be at least 5 to 6 inches for a 4 x 6 x 8 betta tank.
5. Add 30 to 40 mL of Talisay extract to every water change and a pinch of rock salt.
6. Acclimate the betta fish for 20 minutes before releasing it.

At this point, the betta fish had already acclimated to the water. So, I released it. The betta fish swam around immediately and familiarized itself with the surroundings.

By the way, I do not know the gender of our new friend here. Its container came with a label, but it was already blotted when it arrived. I’ll ask the seller and give you an update.

Update: The fish is a male super red half-moon Betta fish.

Watch me set the tank up!

Day 2: Learning the responsibilities of a fishkeeper

Day 2 was a beautiful, sunny day. It was nearly Christmas, so our house was full of holiday decorations.

Tank cleaning

The first thing I did that day was to clean the poop from the tank.

If you watched my setup video, you saw that it already had poop everywhere when the fish arrived. I mistakenly dumped the dirty water into the tank. So, it was a good idea to clean the tank.

Since I am a novice at owning a pet fish, I do not know how to handle that. I literally know nothing; I don’t know what its poop looks like or the proper technique for removing it.

So, I used a poop siphon to clean the visible particles (which I assumed were poop).

After which, I replaced the dirty water with new, treated water.

Watch me clean the tank!

Erratic fish movements

After cleaning, I noticed that the fish was behaving erratically. So, I was naturally worried.

At first, I thought that the cleaning had stressed it out. Or, the fish did not like the treated water I added. Both are huge possibilities. However, eventually, it started behaving normally.

Feeding the fish

I fed the fish three times today. While I’m aware that fish must only eat twice a day, I sprinkled some food pellets after seeing the fish move erratically. I’m happy to see that it looks visually excited each time I feed it.

I took pictures of him today. Here are some of the best shots.

Day 3: Cleaning Day

First thing in the morning, I fed the fish. I’m always excited to give it food, but I forget to record it. The fish is always looking forward to feeding time. But, I’ll definitely take a video later when I feed him.

White floating stuff

I saw some white stuff on the water’s surface. I don’t know whether that’s a bad thing or not. Was it poop?

I thought it was, so I removed it. First, I tried dabbing some paper towels (similar to how chefs remove oil from food). I had good results. But, the poop pump did a better job. I managed to remove most of this stuff.

Since I was already using the poop siphon, I did the daily poop cleaning. I forgot to capture the cleaning again because I did the cleaning in the kitchen.

What I captured was the tank’s cleaning.

Day 4, 5, 6, and 7: The Cycle Continues

Days 4, 5, 6, and 7 are uneventful. After waking up, I cleaned the tank of visible and floating poop. I put in three food pellets, and the fish gobbled them as fast as it could.

I saw a YouTube video that recommends using a gravel siphon for faster and easier cleaning. Certainly, I will buy one.

The Daily Life of a Fishkeeper

I had a similar routine the following days: wake up, clean the tank, and feed the fish. The cycle begins again the next morning.

I guess this is my life now. Still, I am happy that I decided to own a pet Betta fish. I love my work setup more because I have something that accompanies me while I work from home.

Final Verdict: Will I Buy More?

Will I buy more fish? It is hard to say at this moment. Fishkeeping is no joke and can be tough at times.

But I can see a future where I buy more fish. Maybe I will build a community tank. Who knows! For now, I will continue learning more about fish and fishkeeping. Let me know what you want to see next.

Happy fishkeeping, everybody!