a natural habitat for a betta?

[winterangel608]

I recently starting keeping female bettas (only since june) and have really enjoyed it. i've decided to set up a second aquarium, a small 10 gallon. i want to set up the enviroment in it to mimic the natural habitat of the betta, from what i've learned that is thailand and surrounding areas. how do i found out what aquatic plants are from that area? just not sure how to go about this. i was also thinking of using sand instead of gravel, but i've also heard that sand is harder to keep clean and i have no expierience working with sand or whether or not it's ok for bettas. all suggestions welcome!!!!!

[Mvjnz]

I was just reading a thread about this in a different forum, and they all ended up agreeing that the bettas natural environment will never look good in an aquarium, due to mainly being muddy.

They live mainly in rice paddies, but their natural habitat are actually small rivers and swamps. To mimic that you'd need a kind of mud/dirt substrate and grass/reed like plants which break the surface.

But the bettas we keep today are highly domesticated, and not at all like the wild bettas which live in rice paddies and rivers/swamps, so I think they'll be just as happy if you just give them a nice planted tank with a substrate of your choice.

[robnepper]

I agree. I think that most of the Bettas we get have never even been exposed to there native waters or tasted native foods. We have turned them into ornaments and so they are happy with what we give them.

[AABatteries]

If you wanted to keep 2 bettes in 10g this might be something you could do...

[cocoa_pleco]

hard to get natural habitat, but to make him happy, get a sandy substrate and a bunch of plants (java fern, java moss)

[DragonGoby]

I won't said more than what have already been said... But here's my two cent on the subject.
What you can do is taking a soft substrate, perhaps sand but if you're affraid to try it, find some very small gravel...
For the plants: use java fern, and some floating plant... The floating plant will help you diminishing the light in your tank, something the betta like, without having to change your bulb... Plus the betta will likely use those plants to make bubble nest if it's a male... Or simply play with them... Don't forget to find some hidding place at the bottom: log or rocks... But I will go personnally for a log...

You have a great idea, but as all the other said, Betta we find now are not the same as the wild species... But you can try to match some aspect of their wild environment...

If you decide to go that way, please show us some pics, I will like it as I plan doing something like that some times from now.

[Northernguy]

I don't know where you heard that sand is harder to keep clean but I disagree! Almost all the fish poop and extra food just lays on top of the sand.Sand packs down and doesn't allow most of the crap from penetrating it.Vacuuming is easy, just hold it above the surface and it sucks it up!
Everything filters right through gravel.

Your betas will be happy as long as its planted and a piece of driftwoood won't hurt.

Looking forward to the pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1