One of the most attractive fish kept by hobbyists.  But sadly mistreated.  Anyone considering keeping these are strongly encouraged to do their homework by taping "betta" or "uk betta forum" into their search engine.

Apart from the veil tail which is readily available for about £3.00 - £5.00 at most pet shops there are numerous other varieties which come up for sale on EBay occasionally, such as:

                  Crowntails, Half Moons, Delta Tails, Double Tails, Plakets(Short finned)

All the varieties coming in a stunning assortment of colours.

Although these fish when offered for sale in pet shops are normally confined to small containers hung onto the side of  tanks this is a far from ideal setup and is done only to keep the males separate(two will fight to the death) or to keep the bettas fins away from fin nippers until sold - it should not be taken as an indication of how they should be kept - like any other fish they require space.  If thinking of purchasing one for the community tank be aware that fast moving tetras and the like will take great pleasure in reducing a bettas fins to shreds.

Conditioned correctly and kept in the right conditions these are one of the easiest egg layers to breed but you do need to be able to separate young males when they start squaring up to each other!!!  You also need a means of re-housing your surplus.  If you do decide to breed them consider carefully what you pair up - whilst there is a market on here for nicely produced Crown Tail, Half Moons etc Veil Tails normally have to be given away to family, friends and the local pet shop.  Beware where you source your breeding females from;  most betta females for sale in pet shops are of the plaket(short finned) variety they will not reproduce the flowing fins of the long tail in the first generation - female veil tails are a rare animal and are only rarely/ accidentally exported(They are very distinctive having longer angular fins - not the squared off type possessed by plakets). Be aware also that the occasional male plaket gets mixed in with shipments of females(unlike the long fin males(which are retained until fins have grown and are saleable)) females are exported when still young, a plaket male will happily shred your males nice cumbersome finnage should you mistakenly try to "pair" them. With bettas it is always better to pair type to type ie crowntail to crowntail or half moon to half moon(personally I also like to match colours as well - even then the colour of fry will be varied) unless you have the patience to linebreed and wait for quite a few generations to reproduce your original fish - in the meantime you may have difficulty disposing of the young from the first few generations who are unlikely to possess the foundation males good points which presumably attracted you to him.

Male bettas should only be placed with females when breeding otherwise you risk the male being attacked and his fins shredded.

Female bettas can be kept in groups(a "harem") and develop a hieracy or pecking order, new females introduced to the group are occasionally attacked and mayhem can be caused(with ripped fins all round) - a good tip is to remove all females, re-arrange the tanks decoration and reintroduce all the females at the same time.

Because of the betta's ability to take in air from the surface some sellers state they can be kept in small decorative unheated containers - the fish if they manage to survive(and that is all they will do) certainly wont prosper.  Like any other fish they require a balanced nutricious diet, clean water kept at the right temperature and benefit from regular water changes.  The latest stupidity is an IPod Speaker with mini tank built in.

Bettas like any other fish are occasionally hit by disease - a  good tip to keep these to a minimum and cut medicinal costs is to run a UV filter which kills all free floating pathogens, spores, bacteria and algae - a good cheap one is the Fish R Fun variant(I dont sell them but they are readily available on EBay).   These wont cure a disease already in a fish's body but will by killing the free floating stage cut the transmission from fish to fish.  These are invaluable when raising betta fry (1 cm +).

AS MENTIONED AT THE BEGINNING THERE ARE LOADS OF GOOD BETTA SITES ON THE NET.  UK BETTA FORUM IS AN EXCELLENT SITE AND THOSE ON IT ARE ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER SOUND ADVICE WITH THE KEEPING, BREEDING AND HEALTH OF BETTAS.  BE AWARE THAT IT CAN TAKE SOME TIME TO REGISTER AS A USER ON THE SITE DUE TO AN ATTEMPT BY THE MODERATORS TO DETER SPAMMERS FROM POSTING CRAP.

There will be a major charity fish auction taking place in December 2008 in Redditch UK where numerous hard to find tropical fish will be on offer(guppies, endlers, killifish, betta(all types), wild catfish, cichlids to name but a few).   Details can be found by pressing yellow charity button on TA Aquaculture site nearer the time.