Unlike tap water or spring water, distilled water has gone through a process that strips it almost completely of all minerals. Like RO water (reverse osmosis), it is essentially pure and no longer contains any of the trace elements that would be found naturally in water. Fish kept in distilled water over a period of time may show signs of lethargy or color loss. Most aquarists choose to use tap water because it is very inexpensive and if treated with a good aquarium conditioner is safer and healthier for your fish than distilled.
If you have tested your tap water and found that it isn’t suitable for fish (extremely high or low pH for example) you could buy bottled spring water. Spring water has not gone through the distilling process and still contains the minerals bettas need. It is considerably more expensive then tap water but usually less expensive than distilled water.
Betta Bowl | Photo By Aspecticide
View Comments (60)
I filter my Bettas tap water then add the conditioner. Is filtering my water taking away some of those minerals?
I think filtering is different than distilling but I’m not sure. I’d have to know more about how you are filtering the water.
im wondering if its safe for betta fish to use tap water
Filtering it takes out hard minerals such as lead with all of our tap water contains small traces. So filtering it and then adding water conditioner seems like the best thing to do in my opinion to remove the harsh hard minerals
what are the bubble floating around the top of the water from my male betta?
Probably a Bubble Nest. It’s a good sign of a healthy betta.
I’ve been using distilled water for my Betta in his bowl for about 7 months now, he seems about the same health wise – an employee at Petco recommended using it – my only fear of switching to spring water would be some minerals may be too concentrated. I’m not familiar enough with how it’s produced to know what the mineral levels in spring water are. Would I have to a water conditioner it before using it? Or is it already made safe to use?
Minerals aren’t added into spring water. They are naturally present in all bodies of water (spring water, lake water, ocean water, tap water). The distilling process strips the minerals away leaving you with water that is so “pure” that it has no health benefits to your fish. Bottled spring water (for drinking) is perfectly safe for bettas and requires no water conditioner.
My Beta acts like the rear half of his body is too heavy for him. He was not like this when I first brought him home.
I recall my sister had one that had this same mannerism & he is still alive and doing fine.
His appetite is good.
I use just normal well water and betta plus+ do i need the water conditioner?
My daughter’s male blue beta died. He seemed lethargic for a week and this am he appeared to be fighting for his last breath. I keep my house temp. lower at night. Did I kill Blue?
there is a chance you did kill blu, escpescially if he didnt have a heater. bettas are tropical fish and like their water to be between 80 and 82 degrees farenheit (more or less). whats also possible is that the nitrate and amonia levels were too high in his tank and he got poisoned from poor water quality, but the likeliness of all of this is dependant on the setup your aquarium has
When using any water, whether bottled or tap, check the phosphate levels. High levels of phosphate will kill a Siamese Fighting Fish, and some bottle water have lethal levels of phosphate. RO water should not and minerals can be added by using tropical salts. Even using rain water you should add salts.
It for nesting and they happy. I think he’s ready to mate.
I am a new Bets owner. Please just tell me which water to buy. and the reccommended size tank. I am not concerned about the cost.
Tanks should be a minimum of 5 gallons for a betta, but the bigger the tank the better. Tap water is fine, but you need water conditioner to remove contaminants like chlorine.
I use ro water from our system for my fish. Should I add any thing to this water?
Water conditioner