What a sweet intended gesture..!
He lives at home and therefore has reasonable indoor temps?Riight?
Hopefully it is not a nursing home which are rather chilly and the poor tropical betta must survive UNtropical living for the length of his life or that you have a mini 25 watt heater to back up cold days.
Of course you
QT'd Mr. Betta to insure health before gifting him...right? Ya know how
Qt is the end-all around this board. ounce of prevention really IS worth a pound of cure with fish.
being...Christmasfish.....started with 7 fishmas gifts...none of the originals are alive. All died horribly. And only one survives from the refund used at a diffferent location....
It would end up being a poor gift if he has to try to cure it of something and then see it dead one morning.
I am not trying to be discouraging, but as self appointed purveyor of betta justice, I have ta mention it. I am sure it is prolly too late for anything but a heater anyway...... but my fishmas was sure a sad occasion. My betta and his tank came on the same day and no heaters to fit it in town. My cold house brought out every disgusting crust they can get. The bettas we got had ich, columnaris, anchorworms and flukes mixed and matched on the lot. One had it all at once. And I was lost because I never had sick betta before. My fish died uncured after a month of treatments. And nothing showed up until day three to seven.
They all looked fine at first.
I'm young, I'll get over it. I still feel bad here in Feb. An older person may feel very bad if they think they killed off their new pet that was also a gift.
Other than that? Feed the betta small amounts of variety instead of just flake and he won't bind up. A betta splendens stomach is as large as his eye. Both literally and metaphorically.
Make sure artificial plants are "betta-safe" run them on nylon....if it snags nylon, it'll snag the soft lovely fins. A good temp and food, and he'll be skimming bubble nests off his friends surface daily.. 8) Good water and heat... he'll live longer and show full coloration too.
