Improvements

[marcusbacus]

As amanichem mentioned in the post about betta setup, there are many myths and tips often controversial or useless. As I've been having sort of a success (*knock* *knock* *knock*) with my bettas with a very "conservative" (so to speak, maybe it's not the adequate word) caring, I would like to know from you what were the best things you've done to your bettas to improve their overall condition.

So far, the most effective improvements on the "life quality" of my bettas were (not in a particular order):

1 - tank size - they came from the store in these 600ml cubicles (1/8 of a gallon?), and everybody is told that they "can live there comfortably". Mine don't live in mansions, but they are quite confortable in their bigger tanks.

2 - different foods - try to live on caviar and champagne every day... it's not that funny, believe me

3 - live plants - perhaps it was the most noticeable improvement.

4 - temperature control (stability).

I'm not quoting water changes or conditioners because these are not "improvements", but actually rules that you must follow.

[Rachel]

Mine would be basically the same factors as you listed Marcus. Along with keeping things simple and not using unnecessary additives in the tanks on a regular basis.

[abm]

Exactly my experience And to be honest, a great part of it was my finding HB and learning which "opinions" about betta care were actually factual. I had been "told" many things, most of which (I now know : were simply wrong. And trying to change something every time someone told me the opposite put my bettas through a rough time But here at HB I found people who helped me figure out right from wrong, and now I know how to have "healthy bettas" (pun intended )
Didn't intend to spout off a commercial for the website, but marcus's post got me thinking about what has really helped my guys the most - and my list is the same as his, but I would add HealthyBetta because this is where I learned it all

[marcusbacus]

We also could start a thread about the absurdities we read/hear, maybe it could be a topic titled as "no matter what they tell you, don't you ever do this" or something ("bettas never need to have their water changed" kind of stuff).

Sometimes the solutions to our (fishy) problems are easier than we think, and getting to know other people's experiences for sure help us if not to solve our problems, at least to not waste time (and money and fishes lives) doing useless things.