White Veiltail Betta Care Guide

The White Veiltail Betta is a classic – a peaceful, intelligent, long-finned Betta splendens with the elegance of a wedding dress and the personality of a small dragon. Whites are particularly striking because the lack of pigment makes their behavior easy to read; you can see blushes of color come up when they are excited or stressed. This guide covers everything you need to keep a single betta happy in a properly set up tank.

Quick Stats

Scientific name: Betta splendens (white veiltail color/finnage form)
Adult size: 2.5-3 inches including fins
Minimum tank: 5 gallons, heated and filtered
Temperature: 78-82°F
pH: 6.5-7.5
Hardness: 3-10 dGH
Diet: Carnivore
Temperament: Aggressive toward other bettas, generally peaceful otherwise
Lifespan: 3-5 years with good care

Tank setup

A betta needs a real tank. Five gallons is the minimum; ten gallons is better. The tank must be heated to 78-82°F and have gentle filtration. Bettas are tropical fish from slow, warm, shaded waters in Thailand, and the small unheated bowls so often sold for them are responsible for most of the short lifespans you see online. Give a betta proper conditions and they regularly live four years or more.

Decorate softly. Veiltails carry very long, delicate fins that catch on sharp decor. Stick with smooth driftwood, silk or live plants, and rounded rocks. Floating plants are ideal because bettas like to rest near the surface and build bubble nests there. Lighting should be moderate; bright overhead lighting bleaches their color and can stress them. A tight lid is essential – bettas jump.

Water

Slightly soft, slightly acidic, very stable. Most tap water in the US falls in an acceptable range after dechlorination. Avoid extreme parameters. Nitrate should stay under 20 ppm. Bettas in dirty water develop fin rot fast, and veiltail fins are particularly hard to recover once damaged. Weekly 25-30 percent water changes on a 5-gallon, or biweekly on a 10-gallon, keep things stable.

Tankmates

Some bettas tolerate tankmates; many do not. As a rule, do not put two male bettas in the same tank ever – they will fight to the death. Females in a sorority are possible but require a 20+ gallon tank with lots of cover, and even then it can fail. The safest setup is one male in a species tank.

If you want a community, peaceful, drably-colored fish are safest: ember tetras, harlequin rasboras, kuhli loaches, ottocinclus, peaceful Corydoras, and snails. Avoid fin-nippers, brightly-colored fish that may trigger aggression (guppies, endler males), and anything that competes for the surface (gouramis). Watch carefully for the first week – bettas have individual personalities and some will not tolerate any tankmate.

Diet

Bettas are carnivores. Feed a quality betta pellet (Fluval Bug Bites, Hikari Betta Bio-Gold, New Life Spectrum Betta) as the staple. Supplement two to three times a week with frozen bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, or mysis. Fast one day per week to prevent bloat. Two or three pellets per meal is enough. Overfeeding causes bloat and a fouled tank.

Ordering from us

Bettas are tough shippers when packed correctly, but we still follow our standard Shipping & Acclimation procedure and hold orders in extreme weather. Drip acclimate over 30-45 minutes. Bettas tolerate slight parameter shifts well. Questions on setup? Email help@jojoaquatics.com.

— The JoJo Aquatics team, Key West, Florida