It is absolutely vital that you get a water conditioner, as well. Your fish will be poisoned by chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals without one. I use Aqua Safe for myself, and have found that one to work quite well. Follow the dosage directions on the back. You may also consider getting test kits for Ammonia and NitrIte. When you first place the Betta in the tank, his waste will just collect, and too high concentrations will poison him. Eventually, a colony of bacteria that keeps the water free of toxic Ammonia and NitrIte will renovate, but until then you need to monitor these levels and take them out of the water whenever they get high (when ammonia gets to 0.25 ppm) through switching out part of the water. Eventually the tank will “cycle” and you can go to one partial water change of 25% per week. Make sure you add aqua safe to the new water before you place it in, every time.

In case of algae, you can just use a soft kitchen sponge (with NO soap whatsoever, never place soap in the tank!) and just get any algae off with that. The partial water changes will keep the water clean. Never clean the filter, particularly the bio-wheel, as that will kill all the bacteria keeping the water free of toxic substances. You can buy a small siphon at the pet store to clean the bottom of the tank, submerge the tube in water, and once there is no air in the tube, take in both ends with your thumb/hand, then place one end in a container lower than the tank, and it will automatically start suctioning from the tank. To stop this, take in the part in the aquarium with your thumb again, lift it out of the water, and then it will stop suctioning. If, even as it is sucking, you place it near the bottom it will get out all the yucky stuff among the stones and bottom.

As for food, try and give a variety. For a staple, I like Hikari Betta Bio Gold pellets, 3-5 per day will be plenty. You can also get Flakes, just make sure they are specifically for Bettas. Freeze Dried or Frozen Brine Shrimp or Blood Worms would be a excellent 2-3 times per week supplement.

Bettas have very fragile fins, so you need to take care in the kind of decorations you get him. You should only get silk plants, not plastic. Also, make sure there are no sharp edges on the sculpture. To see if it is too sharp, run a pantyhose against it. If it tears the pantyhose, then it will tear the Betta’s fin. If not, you are excellent to go.

As for rocks on the bottom, make sure you don’t get the pretty glass kinds. These tend to break eventually, and then you have small bits of sharp glass in the tank, which obviously is undesirable. Smooth stones sold at the pet store will work fine. Make sure you get them from the pet store and the fish part, as some types of stone from other places can mess with the water chemistry.

Also, you really can only get one Betta. Males, as you know, will kill each other. So will a male and female, though.
Basically, a male only welcomes in a female when she is stout with eggs. Afterwards, he chases her off, he is the one who cares for the eggs. Once she leaves the territory of that male, she may find other eggs from other couples, and she will try to eat these to give herself a food source. Males, naturally, have evolved to guard their nests against females that come in who aren’t heavy with eggs (and won’t be able to serve any purpose in the territory but threatening the nest). So they automatically try to kill any female that isn’t ready to mate. As most females are not ready to mate most of the time, and only with careful conditioning become ready to mate, you can’t keep a male and female together.

One last thing, here is a website with pictures of the various common illnesses of Bettas, so you will be able to recognize if one is sick and not buy it (the pics start about 1/4 of the way down, and the whole site is useful by the way): http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm

You’ll also need a small filter and heater in the tank. Only do 25% water changes weekly, NEVER completely drain the whole tank and scrub it. And please don’t take the fish out even as you clean the tank, this just adds unnecessary stress to him.

2 Bettas cannot be together because they will fight. You can only have a male and female Betta together for a couple of minutes even as they’re breeding. After they spawn, the male will try and kill the female, so you have to remove her then.

i hope i helped goodluck with ur bettas

The reason you don’t house a pair together is becuase they are very rough. In a tank they can’t really get away from one another as they may possibly in the wild. Especially in such a small tank. Believe me, do not keep a pair together.