As the popularity of keeping betta fish continues to increase, especially since the prices for the rare and unique colored bettas is at an all-time low right now, we have seen some people asking for tips and tricks on how they are able to groom their betta fish.
Now, unlike grooming a cat or dog, there is no need to actually touch your betta fish and risk damaging it with the methods that we will be sharing in this article.
All of our tips for grooming betta fish have been designed to help with one specific feature of your betta fish to help you get the results that you want from your fish.
Provided you implement the grooming practices correctly, each set of tips will deliver results in the specific area that they have been designed to improve in your betta fish.
Our table of contents below should be able to help you quickly navigate the article but skimming over all of our betta grooming tips can be worth the time as they can all improve the visual appeal of your fish in some way.
We have chosen to focus on getting brighter colors, enhancing the colors of your betta, helping to encourage size and growth in your bettas body, and helping to groom for a larger tail and fins as these tend to be the most commonly requested grooming methods for betta fish.
Grooming For Brighter Colors!
Grooming your betta fish to get bright colors is usually one of the easiest things to do as color fade in betta fish is usually due to the fish not being on a suitable diet.
Switching over to a flake or pellet based betta food that has been designed for color retention while adding in live daphnia and live brine shrimp as treat foods are all quick, easy, and cheap ways to groom your betta to brighten its colors.
In our opinion, the Bettamin is the best standard food option for betta fish on the market right now when it comes to brightening the colors of your betta fish.
There are a number of different brine shrimp hatchery kits on the market that can supply plenty of baby brine shrimp to use as live food for your betta too that are also great for brightening the colors of your betta.
Grooming To Enhance Colors!
You are able to enhance the natural colors of your betta fish by taking advantage of Indian almond leaves to release tanning into your betta’s tank water.
This is able to enhance the natural colors of your betta fish surprisingly quickly with little additional effort being required in your grooming activities for your fish.
There are a number of different products that you are able to use for this type of grooming in your betta fish but in our opinion, Indian almond leaves are the best option by far.
We mentioned them in our article on using tannins for betta fish and they have the best reputation amongst the betta owning community when it comes to enhancing the natural colors of your betta fish.
Grooming Your Bettas Length!
Unfortunately, betta fish are commonly kept in containers that are too small for them and this can end up having an effect on the maximum length of the betta fish.
Although this effect is not as pronounced as in some other species of fish, keeping your betta fish in a suitable tank is an easy grooming tip that can encourage the full growth of the betta to its maximum possible body length.
It is generally accepted that the absolute minimum tank size that a betta fish should be kept in is a 3 gallon aquarium but we usually recommend that you try to go with a 5 gallon aquarium for your betta fish if possible.
This offers plenty of space for your betta fish and allows it to grow to its maximum potential length depending on the genetics of the fish without presenting any risk of stunting the growth of the fish.
Grooming For A Larger Tail And Fins!
Although you can technically groom your betta fish for a larger tail and fins, the natural genetics of your betta fish will come into play for this more than your grooming efforts.
Making sure that your betta fish is kept in a tank that is suitable for it and getting your betta fish to flare for around 15 minutes per day is usually all you have to do to groom your betta for the largest possible tail and fins.
As we touched on in the section above, we usually recommend a 5 gallon aquarium for your betta and a cheap flare mirror if possible.
Simply use the flare mirror for around 15 minutes, usually after feeding your betta as it can also help with digestion to get your betta to flare its tail and fins to encourage growth.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the four main tips for grooming betta fish that we see requested from the betta owning community to an end. All of the grooming tips that we have featured are easy to do although some do have a cost associated with them if you don’t already have a suitable tank or food for your betta fish.
