Two Care Tricks Gleaned From Fighting Fish Breeders

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Recently watched a video that claimed to offer uncommon tricks gleaned from breeders of bettas for the purpose of fighting them. Hearing that caught my attention. Not because I approve of this sort of thing. I don’t. But more because as was pointed out people raising bettas for this purpose want to develop the strongest healthiest fish in the shortest amount of time possible. So you’d think they know something we hobbyist breeders may not.

Still the ideas must have been somewhat controversial as the video has since been removed unfortunately. Luckily I captured two of the main points made so that even though the video is now on the cutting room floor, you can still benefit.

So with that in mind here are the two primary takeaways I took away from the now lost video.

First trick: Almond leaf extract. While it will stain your water to more tannish or amber color, it will also boost your HM betta’s immune system, strengthen their scales and improve any resulting bubblenests. You can either buy an additive such as Addison’s Betta spa, which is available on Amazon, or get some real Indian Almond leaves – which most feel are even better.

All you need is a one by one square and you’ll get enough tannins etc leaching into the water to take care of your fish. And if that’s the case think what entire leaves of the stuff can do!

When tested, the mere presence of almond leaf tended to cause the video creator’s bettas to go into bubble nest building hyper-drive. Without it, not so much. Anecdotal evidence yes. And your mileage may vary as well. But given it softens the water to more along the lines of your guy’s ancestral waters it’s easy to see how this might trigger a bubble nest building frenzy.

Just remember this will turn you water the color of tea.

Second Trick: Okay so the second thing to do is feed a variety of foods. Pellets, frozen blood worms, and live foods like black worms. Note there is risk of parasites with the live black worms. And even though breeders of fighters may like them, others feel there is risk just from feeding black worms themselves as explained here.

Given all that, I’ll leave it to you whether or not you want to embrace that type of live food when there are plenty of other safer options like daphnia, mosquito larvae and brine shrimp readily available. Which may well confer the same benefits.

In any case while I hope you’re not breeding fighting fish, I do hope these tips help advance your line breeding efforts.

About Lucas
Putting a name with a face I'm Lucas Smatana. Like you I'm passionate about betta fish and hope to share my enthusiasm. The idea here is to make sure you get helpful info and useful ideas on betta fish care that really work. To insure your betta keeping experience is a good one both for you and your fish. So that you and your pet enjoy a long, happy and healthy relationship.

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