# New Here.



## MarkMI (Aug 1, 2005)

Hello all. I am new to Bettas. I live in the Metropolitan Detroit area of Michigan. Just Northwest, in Sterling Heights. I am 32, and I got my first betta 2 weeks ago. I picked him up at the local PetSmart who had quite a few the day I went. As I was new to keeping a betta, and reading around here found that they can be pickie and sometimes downright hard to upkeep when you first get them if they are sick, I tried to find one that looked good. 

I have a small one gallon TopFin tank, with 2 small plastic plants in it, and some blue gravel. My Betta is a Dark Blue color, with some red in his bottom fin, and his two front fins are reddish, and end in white tips. He seems happy enough, I have a dropper bottle for removal of the chlorine in the water, some flakes for food that he seems to enjoy.

I have been considering getting a 5 Gallon tank and splitting it, to get another betta as well. But for now, I am happy with the one I have. Hopefully I will be able to get a digi cam that will allow me to take close ups so I can post him.


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## Im totally me (Aug 5, 2005)

Hi and welcome! Your Betta sounds just like mine. Same colors in the same places and everything. Your set up sounds good, except, for the plants, I would say that cloth plants (sounds strange doesn't it!) are better, because I have heard that when the Bettas sometimes accidentally scrape their fins and scales on them. Mine are cloth, with they like very much!


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## MarkMI (Aug 1, 2005)

i have been keeping a eye out at the local stores for cloth ones. The PetCo nearby had some, but I wasnt sure of quality, or what I really wanted.

I looked nearby for live Java fern, but I didnt like the look of the leaves, and didnt want to attempt to care for a plant that I know next to nothing about.

I do have tomorrow off, and its getting close to water change day, so, maybe I will run out and get something.


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

Welcome to fish forums, you've found the right place! We have lots of betta lovers here :-D


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Yo yo... fishfreaks am I one of them ha ha
Well welcome to FishForums.com! Enjoy yourself here


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

:hi: i am from MI too. my dad actually works in Sterling Heights at General Dinamics.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

:hi: Welcome to Fish Forums!


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## Im totally me (Aug 5, 2005)

I actually had to order the cloth plants off the internet. I just could not find a store here that had them! Yea, live plants are harder to work with, more pretty though! I have anubias (live plants) in with my Neon tetras, and cloth plants with my platies and Bettas, my tetras have plastic plants, because I already had them, and they don't care about having plants in there. I'm not sure what Java Fern look like, but if doesn't look like it has good leaves, don't get it. I got one like that once, and it had these little white worms in it, yuck, not somthing I wanted in my tank! The other plants I had turned out to be a favorite dining place for my fish! They ate it! I was so mad at them, they ate it from the bottom up, so I had plant stalks floating around the tank!!!

 Good luck!


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