Can Betta fish live in distilled water?

Steps

1. Fill your tank with about 1 liter (1/4 of gallon) distilled or bottled spring water (preferably bottled spring water) . Make sure the water is between 23 and 29 degrees Celsius or between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a light before adding the eggs. Put a piece of black paper behind the tank. If you bought a kit and it came with detritus (eggs), follow the instructions and add this.
2. Stir in your packet of triop eggs and wait for at least 18 hours. After this time, look closely at the tank. You should be able to see little white specks swimming over the black background. Some of these are your triops! The other creatures (Fairy Shrimp, Cyclops, Water Fleas etc.) will probably be eaten by the triops, so don't worry.
3. Wait another 3 days after the majority of triops have hatched. After that waiting period, you can raise the water temperature to 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit)and have them on a day/night schedule. Feed them the food the kit gave you or use tropical fish pellets, not goldfish pellets. Crush them between two spoons, then add half of this to the tank.
4. Continue to feed once a day till they are 5 days old, then they eat 2-3 times a day. At 7 days and over, feed them a full pellet to each triops 2-3 times a day. Keep feeding till they don't eat anymore, then take out the excess food they don't eat.

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Tips

• Using a light helps growth.
• Put in some sand or fine gravel after 11 days with your triops so they can burrow and lay eggs in the substrate, but you don't have to as they lay 10-30 eggs a day!
• If you don't have any distilled water to use, do not panic! Leaving tap water in an open container exposed to the air for 24 hours will allow most of the chlorine to evaporate. This is what aquarium keepers call "aged tap water". However, tap water is still not as good an option as distilled water or other bottled drinking water, because it has more minerals (see "Warnings" section below).
• Feeding your triops small bits of frozen carrot, shrimp, blood worms, or fish will cause them to grow quicker, and larger.
• Try not to shake or bump the tank as it may spill. Also when your triops get older you may want to invest in a bigger tank.
• If using your own tank, opt for a container with a larger surface area and less depth as they are accustomed to living in shallow rain puddles in the wild. They will likely not be swimming up and down as they enjoy digging around in sand for feeding and breeding.

Warnings

• Another major problem with tap water from some localities is the dissolved minerals it may contain. These salts can be a mixture of calcium, magnesium and sodium with less quantities of other minerals. These have been proven to reduce hatching in triops. When choosing water, it is advisable to obtain water that is as pure as possible and free from bacteria. There are now many drinking waters available that are relatively pure. Simply refer to the bottles label to find out what is in it and avoid ones that contain any chlorine, chloramine or ozone.
• Try to use distilled or spring water. *Don't use tap water as councils add chemicals like fluoride and chlorine to it. Although this is good from a human's point of view, it's not for triops!
• Triops can fertilize. They aren't really one exact sex either. So you might see some pink colored eggs somewhere in the tank!
• While triops can hatch in distilled water, adding natural spring water later is highly recommended as distilled water does not contain any beneficial nutrients. Experts recommend using bottled water made for betta fish sold at local pet stores.

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