Can you convert a Betta to be in a saltwater tank

[Sam713]

So a few people on Facebook are saying bettas are brackish fish and can be put into salt tanks if acclimated. I can’t find anything online in research to support this. Also don’t most Betta breeders use fresh water? So they wouldn’t of come from brackish anyways. If anyone knows please tell me.

[Nathans_Reef]

I dont think that it would survive Saltwater. In the wild bettas live in rice paddy fields, Ponds and marshlands in Thailand and Asia. I wouldn't try it, it would be cruel to the fish.

I have just copy and pasted this from a website:

 

 

Natural Habitat 

 

Siamese fighting fish are residents of an array of natural habitat types, including paddy fields, floodplains, ponds, rivers, marshlands and canals. They are attracted to slow and still water environments, such as streams with excessive amounts of contamination, for example.

 

Also,  Brackish doesn't mean full saltwater, if a fish is brackish that doesnt mean that it can live in a full saltwater tank. 👍

 

 

 

[Tired]

NO. 

 

Very few freshwater and brackish water fish can be acclimated to full saltwater, and it's ones that are adapted to do so. Bettas like soft water without many minerals in it. They don't live anywhere near the coast, which means they wouldn't have any reason to adapt to any sort of salt. A very small amount of salt is OK for them as a disease treatment (though it mostly works by thickening the slime coat thru irritation and harming bacteria, there are much better irritations), but they are not saltwater fish and should not be kept as saltwater fish. Ignore any advice from anyone who tells you a betta can live in brackish or saltwater and do at all well. 

 

There is a fish called a marine betta, but that's a completely different animal. It's more like a small grouper, almost. 

 

If you want a flashy, long-tailed fish for saltwater, guppies can be very slowly acclimated to salt.

[Elizabeth94]

I wouldn’t think so. Plus, they do best in minimal flow. Could you imagine one trying to swim in the amount of flow we have in our systems? Would be terrible. 

[Tired]

Oh, and the fins on the males. Domestic bettas have such fragile fins, the poor thing would run into one rock and get shredded. 

 

A wild betta would do a bit better. You can still get those- a captive-bred individual of a wild strain, not domesticated. Much less inbred, much more functional, still beautiful, and there's a dozen or so species available. The ones you see in stores are Betta splendens, and this is a wild male. The dark water behind it is because they do best with a lot of tannins, which are released by things like decaying leaves and driftwood. A lot of people pretty much keep them in rainwater. 

https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-splendens/

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

one more reason why I will not return to Facebook any time soon.

 

also +1 for getting a wild type betta. I am not a fan of all these bred selections.

[Tired]

I honestly like the domesticated ones, but the older lines. Veiltails and, especially, crowntails. The ones that are only kinda hampered by the tail, and can still be zippy and active. Not the poor elephant ears and the double-tails that tear their own finnage up so they can swim better. Those giant bettas with the short fins aren't half bad either, at least the good lines and not the inbred Petco ones. You have to be careful about colors, some colors are more prone to certain things, and those lovely marbles with the ever-changing colors are very prone to cancer for the same reason their colors keep changing. But, like any other domesticated thing, it's entirely possible for them to be perfectly healthy when responsibly bred. Unless it's a line that can't be healthy- for example, dragonscales slowly go blind as the scales grow over their eyes. They're like spider ball pythons, the thing that makes them pretty also messes them up. 

 

Wild bettas, though? Beautiful colors, generally healthy fish, and you can keep groups! I used to have 2 pairs of B. albimarginata in an 18" blackwater cube, with some other small, peaceful fish. The males would flare at each other now and then when their paths crossed, but largely ignored each other. Cup bettas come from lines bred to fight, which is why they're so aggressive that you can't keep groups. 

(No, sororities don't work. The females are still aggressive, just a bit less so. They stress each other out with their presence, and the sorority eventually collapses in violence. Just get wild bettas.)

[Jikser]

Hi. I love watching my aquarium full of fish where I have different types of fish like guppies. They need to be cared for, so I read a great Betta fish care guide where you can learn about grooming, especially taking care of your Betta fish eggs over here was important to me, which will keep your fish alive and keep you interested in them for longer.

[Tired]

If you have a fish that needs to be groomed, you might need to check whether that is in fact a fish. 

[mcarroll]

Speak for yourself...I brush my fish every night. 

[Tamberav]

I would leave fish grooming up to the certified professionals