Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my name is Danielle and I've recently become interested in bettas. I bought my first one about six months ago, but he has since passed away. I think when i bought him he was already sick. His fins were torn up and he just looked kinda ragged. I've done alot of research on the internet, but don't really know what's legit and what's not. Alot of these sites I'm visiting have conflicting info. But anyway, my real reason for posting is because I've bought a new betta. He's probably between 1-1.5 inches and is a crowntail. Now my thing is, I chose him because he wasn't as large as the other ones and I'm hoping he may be sorta young and still growing. Is there any way possible to guess a betta's age? And can I get him to grow as big as some of the ones I see online and also in the pet stores? (I didn't want to get the really big ones because I figured they were kinda old). But anyway advice would be nice! Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the boards.

It's very hard to tell with petstore bettas. They range in age. Size isn't a good measurement for age. A smaller betta may not have gotten as much food as the others or didn't have as clean water. You should always purchase a healthy fish... regardless of size or color. If there are a lot of healthy bettas then you can choose your color from the healthy ones. Some fish may already be too gone to rescue. The one you had previously may have been one of the ones too gone already.

Your new betta may be able to grow bigger, but I wouldn't force it by giving him way too much food. You should only be feeding once a day as much as your betta can consume in 2 minutes. It may seem like he wants to be fed more than that, but trust me... once a day is plenty. Since you've been researching, I wanted to give you a reputable website you can go to for information.
Betta Talk

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Phishie
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